Nigerian Youths: The Unrepentant Tortoise

Returning to my country home, a town where political enlightenment is at the highest ebb.  My findings confirmed the vagueness and delusion which social media put a lot of us. There is the magic wo…

Source: Nigerian Youths: The Unrepentant Tortoise

Lagos hosts its EMC Forum

Lagos is hosting the first EMC Forum in West Africa today, giving advice to attendees on how to lead their business transformation with IT. The forum will feature a keynote address delivered by Patricia Florissi, vice president and chief technology officer (CTO) for EMC sales.

Participants are drawn from ICT companies and the banking sector, with organisers saying the goal of the forum is to present participants with business trends and cloud directions.

“From business trends and cloud directions to real-world use cases and interactive discussions, EMC Forum is definitely worthwhile. Connect with peers, learn from experts, and get solution demos,” EMC organisers stated.

 

Hundreds of participants are already at the event.

Courtesy www.humanipo.com

 

iPhone users gets WhatsApp for free

WhatsApp has launched a new version of the application for iPhone users, which comes with a “few major changes”.

WhatsApp previously charged iPhone users a one off US$0.99, while users on other platforms such as Android could use the chat application for free the first year after download and paid the US$0.99 only in the second year.

“We feel that this model will allow us to become the communications service of the 21st century, and provide you [with] the best way to stay in touch with your friends and family with no ads getting in the way,” said WhatsApp in a statement.

“The good news for all current iPhone users is that WhatsApp will be free of charge for the rest of your life.”

Furthermore, WhatsApp has added added more functionality to the application, which includes the option for users to backup their message history in iCloud.

“Since we’re engineers at heart, we’ve introduced developer hooks into WhatsApp. We’ve had many other iOS (iPhone Operating System) developers ask us for API (Application Programming Interface) hooks to make interfacing with WhatsApp easy,” said WhatsApp.

Visit the WhatsApp website for more details

Jaguar introduces Wi-Fi internet in buses

Rwandan regional bus company Jaguar Executive Coaches has installed Wi-Fi connection on their vehicles in an effort to increase the quality of service to their customers.The initiative is seeking to meet and expand the needs of society by offering added service to commuters.

“We are in a digital world where people want to feel connected all the time. For that reason and as customer care incentive, we have installed the Wi-Fi on many of our buses,” said Alex Katete, the company’s regional office manager. Katete added: “The connection is fairly fast, at 21.6MB per second, and the company hopes that by the end of this month, all their buses will have been connected.”

The exercise began in June and the company is making an effort to install charging systems on each and every bus in order to make movement easier for its customers.

Jaguar Executive Coaches has a fleet of 24 buses.

Courtesy www.humanipo.com

Universities Face a Rising Barrage of Cyberattacks

America’s research universities, among the most open and robust centers of information exchange in the world, are increasingly coming under cyberattack, most of it thought to be from China, with millions of hacking attempts weekly. Campuses are being forced to tighten security, constrict their culture of openness and try to determine what has been stolen.

Bill Mellon of the University of Wisconsin said the school has seen as many as 100,000 hacking attempts a day from China. University officials concede that some of the hacking attempts have succeeded. But they have declined to reveal specifics, other than those involving the theft of personal data like Social Security numbers. They acknowledge that they often do not learn of break-ins until much later, if ever, and that even after discovering the breaches they may not be able to tell what was taken.

Universities and their professors are awarded thousands of patents each year, some with vast potential value, in fields as disparate as prescription drugs, computer chips, fuel cells, aircraft and medical devices. “The attacks are increasing exponentially, and so is the sophistication, and I think it’s outpaced our ability to respond,” said Rodney J. Petersen, who heads the cybersecurity program at Educause, a nonprofit alliance of schools and technology companies. “So everyone’s investing a lot more resources in detecting this, so we learn of even more incidents we wouldn’t have known about before.”

Tracy B. Mitrano, the director of information technology policy at Cornell University, said that detection was “probably our greatest area of concern, that the hackers’ ability to detect vulnerabilities and penetrate them without being detected has increased sharply.”

Like many of her counterparts, she said that while the largest number of attacks appeared to have originated in China, hackers have become adept at bouncing their work around the world. Officials do not know whether the hackers are private or governmental. A request for comment from the Chinese Embassy in Washington was not immediately answered.

Entrance to the Engineering Mall at Purdue University. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Analysts can track where communications come from — a region, a service provider, sometimes even a user’s specific Internet address. But hackers often route their penetration attempts through multiple computers, even multiple countries, and the targeted organizations rarely go to the effort and expense — often fruitless — of trying to trace the origins. American government officials, security experts and university and corporate officials nonetheless say that China is clearly the leading source of efforts to steal information, but attributing individual attacks to specific people, groups or places is rare.

The increased threat of hacking has forced many universities to rethink the basic structure of their computer networks and their open style, though officials say they are resisting the temptation to create a fortress with high digital walls.

“A university environment is very different from a corporation or a government agency, because of the kind of openness and free flow of information you’re trying to promote,” said David J. Shaw, the chief information security officer at Purdue University. “The researchers want to collaborate with others, inside and outside the university, and to share their discoveries.”

Some universities no longer allow their professors to take laptops to certain countries, and that should be a standard practice, said James A. Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a policy group in Washington. “There are some countries, including China, where the minute you connect to a network, everything will be copied, or something will be planted on your computer in hopes that you’ll take that computer back home and connect to your home network, and then they’re in there,” he said. “Academics aren’t used to thinking that way.”

Bill Mellon of the University of Wisconsin said that when he set out to overhaul computer security recently, he was stunned by the sheer volume of hacking attempts.

“We get 90,000 to 100,000 attempts per day, from China alone, to penetrate our system,” said Mr. Mellon, the associate dean for research policy. “There are also a lot from Russia, and recently a lot from Vietnam, but it’s primarily China.”

Other universities report a similar number of attacks and say the figure is doubling every few years. What worries them most is the growing sophistication of the assault.

For corporations, cyberattacks have become a major concern, as they find evidence of persistent hacking by well-organized groups around the world — often suspected of being state-sponsored — that are looking to steal information that has commercial, political or national security value. The New York Times disclosed in January that hackers with possible links to the Chinese military had penetrated its computer systems, apparently looking for the sources of material embarrassing to China’s leaders.

This kind of industrial espionage has become a sticking point in United States-China relations, with the Obama administration complaining of organized cybertheft of trade secrets, and Chinese officials pointing to revelations of American spying.

Read more at http://www.nytimes.com

Nigerian Payments Online are safe – Interswitch

Titilola Shogaolu, chief payment and value added services officer at Interswitch Limited, has declared that online transactions in Nigeria are safe, despite the poor reputation of the country’s internet usage.

Speaking at the one year anniversary of e-commerce site Jumia, Shogaolu said various online payment service providers have significantly upgraded their measures to the acceptable standard in any part of the world in order to ensure the safety of their customers’ online transactions.

Payment by Phone Service System. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

She said the current level of security at Interswitch has been greatly enhanced by the company’s working partnership with banks, together with which certain security measures such as hardware and SMS tokens have been put in place to ensure the security of transactions.

Shogaolu added the company is also fostering security by introducing market categorization that allows easy detection of fraud patterns.

“Before, when there is a security breach at any bank, it usually stays within the bank and the perpetrators can easily move to other banks and use the same strategy,” Shogaolu said.

“But now, all the banks are open to one another and they share information on scams and frauds within their banks so that other banks don’t fall victim and perpetrators could be easily apprehended.”

She also disclosed the company’s ongoing community social responsibility (CSR) projects which include the Interswitch challenge through which winners get jobs at the company, and the recently developed e-payment curriculum which is a course that could be taken online.

“Certificates are awarded and could be used to seek for employment,” she said.

Courtesy www.humanipo.com

Samsung Wants To Move African Startups With 88mph

Today 88mph and Samsung Electronics Africa have entered into a partnership to provide three lucky startups with a possible placement on the Built For Africa App store, and the potential to be pre-loaded on millions of smartphones across Africa. Samsung will also add marketing muscle to each startup to build and drive consumer awareness.

 

 

English: Taken at the 2009 Consumer electronics show, Las Vegas, at the Samsung Booth. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

“88mph is extremely excited about partnering with a company like Samsung, and being a filter for sourcing great products to their platform,” says Kresten Buch, Founder & MD of 88mph. “As an early-stage investor, it’s important to create an infrastructure around the startups that can increase their chances of making it big. Teaming up with great companies is part of our goal to add substantial value to startups beyond investment.”

 

In addition to the startups being given a premium spot on the Built for Africa store, the partnership also entails potential co-branding pushes, such as Samsung’s recent deals with Universal Music, DSTV, Pana TV and eKitabu – all aimed at growing and driving locally relevant content and services for Africa.

“We are focused on delivering high quality, environment-specific mobile products to our consumers across Africa, backed by locally developed and relevant content,” says Thabiet Allie, Head of Content and Services for Samsung Electronics Africa. “We are thrilled that we can tap into 88mph’s pool of talented entrepreneurs, and give them access to our large user base, while satisfying our consumer needs here in Africa, promote sustainable business, and help drive growth on the continent.”

With Samsung’s extensive distribution network across Africa, this partnership is the perfect springboard for startups that have a product specifically tailored for African consumers, and want to reach consumers across multiple territories in Africa.

“With this partnership, we will be able to attract startups with more mature products or international startups looking to target emerging markets. It’s an extremely rare opportunity to be able to reach millions of your target users in such a short period of time. The fact that it is Samsung who will also market your product alongside theirs, adds credibility, and is basically just wicked cool,” says Sylvia Brune, Head of Partnerships at 88mph.

Product packages that consider the physical and infrastructural demands of Africa, will receive special focus alongside sectors that Samsung is particularly interested including: education, entertainment, & health among others.

 

To be eligible for this opportunity, startups should apply to 88mph before the 1st of August via their website, 88mph.ac.

Courtesy http://www.itnewsafrica.com

 

Internet Connectivity Top Priority For Travellers

There really is no place like home, unless it is a hotel which offers free internet connection. According to new research from IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) it was found that being able to connect online with family and friends is now the top priority for travellers.

 

English: Zune HD in landscape mode showing Internet Explorer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The global research was commissioned to mark the launch this month of IHG’s renamed loyalty programme, IHG Rewards Club. It reveals that not being able to contact home due to lack of internet connection is now the biggest travel headache for people away on business, cited by 40% of travellers as their biggest stress factor, ahead of difficult transport links (26%) and noisy location (24%).

The research covered 10,000 people who travel for business worldwide. It is helping IHG to understand hotel guests’ priorities when travelling, as it becomes the first and only hotel group to offer free internet access globally to all its loyalty members.

This new benefit started with Elite members at the beginning of July and will roll out to all members from 2014, whether they are staying the night at a hotel or coming in for a coffee or impromptu meeting.

Other findings underline the importance of internet access:

· 61% of those surveyed said that internet was the most important additional facility in their hotel room above TV (17%); bath (5%); fridge (3%) and mini bar (1%).

· Logging onto the internet in their room when they first arrive topped the list of things that help travellers feel most at home in their hotel room (31%), above exploring the room (25%), taking a hot shower (14%) or even unpacking (13%).

Nearly two thirds (64%) of travellers say that they would prefer to communicate with people back home over the internet rather than using the phone.

· Over half of parents (53%) surveyed cited connecting with family at home as the best way to de-stress at the end of a working day.

· 89% said that free internet would make them happier whilst travelling away for business.

· And, nearly two thirds of respondents, (65%), would be very unhappy travelling if they had no way of connecting with loved ones back home.

Relationship expert, Jenni Trent Hughes explains. “Just hearing a voice on a telephone is no longer sufficient for the 21st century traveller, we need the comfort of being able to see loved ones too. We want to see our children’s smiles when we’re reading them their bedtime story over Skype; be able to look our partner in the eye when we tell them how much we miss them, as well as keep up with all our social media obligations and emails.”

 

Courtesy http://www.itnewsafrica.com

Oracle To Support Java’s Future In Africa

Oracle Corporation has this week announced a series of programs and activities for Java developers and aspiring developers around the world.These programs set to run under the tagline ‘Make the Future Java’ will enable developers to share their enthusiasm for the computer programming language, increase their technical capabilities, network with other community members and possibly be recognized for exemplary uses of Java.

“Oracle is committed to not only driving Java platform enhancements and technical innovations through collaboration with the Java community, but also, providing developers with the tools and resources they need to implement the latest releases,” said Cameron Purdy, vice president of Development, Oracle.

Oracle is also providing Make the Future Java EE 7 Tool Kits, which contain technical content and promotional items, to enable Java User Group (JUG) leaders to host engaging, inspiring and educational events for their community members.

“With the Java EE 7 technical kits, we can reach thousands of developers though their local JUGs and with our Summer Workshop, we hope to inspire students’ love of technology and computer science, and spark the next generation of Java innovation,” added Mr. Purdy.JUG Africa is an umbrella group for JUGs in Africa with approximately 5,000 members in over 20 countries.

“We find it extremely helpful that Oracle provides online events and webcasts, as well as resources for us to host local events, so our community members can come together to learn about the new features in Java EE 7, as well as socialize and exchange ideas with each other. We currently have 13 events planned over the next few months as part of the Make the Future Java program,” said Lamine Ba, general manager of JUG Africa.

More than three billion devices are powered by Java technology. There are currently over 125 million television devices that employ Java while 97 percent of enterprise desktops run on this technology.

Eighty percent of mobile developers target the Java platform.

 

Courtesy http://www.itnewsafrica.com

Nigeria, A Growing Technology Force In Africa

From West Africa, news over the Internet and off wires is that Nigeria’s bustling technology market continues to grow in stature, relevance and volume. The country has been ranked among the continent’s most active regions according to ITNews Africa.