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  • Long road to NCC’s consumer centric renaissance

    Long road to NCC’s consumer centric renaissance

    Last week in Lagos, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) gathered all the stakeholders in the telecoms industry for the second leg of the launch of its 2017 Year of the Nigerian Telecoms Consumers campaign. While the mobile network operators (MNOs), Lagos State and consumer rights advocacy groups endorsed the initiative, stakeholders say legacy industry challenges need to be addressed, reports LUCAS AJANAKU

    Lagos-based barber, John Eze, is not happy with his service provider. His grouse is that he gets unsolicited text messages and calls marketing one service or the other on the network. Frustrated, he complained to a friend who told him he could stop the menace by confining such numbers to ‘blacklist’ in which case, he alone would be able to make calls to the numbers, not the numbers making calls to him.

    He acceded to that suggestion and for some time, he appeared to get a temporary elixir. But one day, he opened the ‘blacklist’ and discovered almost 310 numbers consisting the 11-digit regular telephone numbers and short codes.

    He was so angry and said to himself: “So this is how many times I have been distracted from my work. Sometimes, the calls come so late at night that they wake me up from sleep. At other times, they come when I am expecting important calls from my customers and family members. Sometimes, when I see missed calls, I try to return the calls because my kids often use their friend’s numbers to ‘flash’ me from school so I could call them back. I get disappointed when I discover that the calls actually came from mobile network operator.”

    Eze’s experience is but one of such end users of telecoms services pass through in the country be it in voice call or mobile data services.

    Inundated with a barrage of complaints, the NCC declared year 2017 as the Year of Nigerian Telecoms Consumers. Fresh interventions and regulatory insights on telecoms consumers’ right and protection were rolled out during the second leg of the flag off the campaign in Lagos.

    More often MNOs, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and content providers (value added services or VAS providers) inundate subscribers with telemarketing and unwanted messages which subscribers did not bargain for.

    Over time there was no choice or options to opt out, stop or control the kind of messages that they want to be receiving on their phone from MNOs. Attempt to solve this and other complaints with the  operators has been a tug of war for the over 154 million subscribers in the industry.

     

    How it started

     

    About 20 months ago when Prof Umar Danbatta assumed the leadership of the NCC as the Executive Vice Chairman, one of the very first steps he took was to constitute a committee on quality of service (QoS) to improve consumers experience on the network.

    He believes the consumers made all the success stories telecoms sector has recorded in the nation’s economy since its liberalisation in 2001.

    Last year, he launched an 8-point agenda which will drive the Commission’s activities until 2020. Item no six on the agenda reads: Protect and Empower Consumers’.

    He mandated the Consumers Affairs Bureau (CAB) of the Commission to ensure the protection of the rights, privileges and interests of telecoms consumers, including the physically challenged groups, through adequate information dissemination programmes, effective policies and strategies that promote effective and efficient service delivery.

    This, however, gave birth to the national campaign of the Year of the Nigerian Telecom Consumer which the commission flagged off in Abuja on March 15 and subsequently in Lagos on Wednesday May 17.

    The Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, Chief officers and top managements from MNOs, ISPs, VAS and large telecoms consumers in the state were at the Blue Roof of the Lagos Television, Agidingbi to endorse the industry regulator’s year of consumer campaign.

     

    Why Lagos campaign?

     

    Quoting figures from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in the first quarter of 2016, Prof Dmabatta said Lagos voice subscriber base stood at 19.04million representing 12.8 per cent of the country’s subscribers and 12.62million internet subscription or 13.65 per cent.

    He said: “The state is a home to many of the key players in the telecoms sector; so it is understandable that it has been selected as the flag off city after the major event in Abuja. The NCC 2017 Year of the Nigerian Telecom Consumer is remarkable because the consumer is in the center stage. We must also remember that these consumers together have made all the success stories we speak about possible in the telecom industry today.

    “So, telecom consumer campaign focuses on the 2442 Do-Not-Disturb (DND) Service Code, the 622 toll free complaints line, Quality of Service, QoS and concerns about the electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation.

    “The rates at which consumers receive telemarketing and unwanted messages from MNOs and ISPs would reduce drastically as consumers can now activate DND short code using the 2442 toll and forwarding unresolved complaints to NCC using 622 toll-free lines.”

    From a customer base of slightly over 400, 000 in the height of NITEL’s glory, “we now have a combined subscriber base of over 150 million across the country. This boom and massive jump in mobile telephony have brought with it several challenges especially in terms of reliable service, network upgrade, expansion and maintenance, and increasing demand for capital expenditure injection into the telecom industry.

    “In the midst of these, the average consumer runs the risk of just becoming a number. This danger therefore means that the customer suffers often times in silence in the hands of the operators primarily in the areas of dropped calls, failed calls often called Call Set Up Success Rate (CSSR) among others; this is exactly why this year is dedicated to the consumer.

     

    Response to DND code

     

    Prof Dambatta said two months after the national campaign was flagged off, there has been progress report in the activation of the ‘DND’ short code using 2442. He said more than one million consumers activated the 2442 DND code within two months, while more subscribers reported their unresolved complaints using NCC’s 622 toll-free lines in the same period.

    The NCC is charged with ensuring that the average consumer gets the best satisfaction possible from the use of the line he has acquired. Thus, mindful of the pains and challenges of a growing economy and a rapidly developing industry, NCC intends to strike a balance. A balance albeit in favour of the consumer who most times is at the receiving end.”

    Also speaking, NCC’s Executive Commissioner, Stakeholders Management, Mr. Sunday Dare, said the initiative was leveraging on the two key components of improving QoS; informing and empowering consumers.

    He said the NCC has already deployed several activities in its strategic plan to run a successful year of the consumer campaign with the support of the operators.

    “Our goal is to make the consumer experience of the average Nigerian better. The drivers of the NCC 2017 Year of the Nigerian Telecom Consumer are the 2442 DND Service Code, the 622 toll free complaints line, Quality of Service, QoS and concerns about the electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation. These are the areas the information provided in the course of the campaign would focus on,” he said.

     

    MNOs, ISPs react

     

    Mobile network representatives present at the flag-off campaign in Lagos took turn to share their positions on the consumer initiative. They applauded the initiative and said it could not have come at a more auspicious time. The NCC had met with the MNOs on different occasions in Abuja on the subject matter.

    They, however, assured consumers at the Lagos forum that the Do-Not-Disturb code is active on their networks and they have expanded their customers’ services networks in order to give adequate attentions to consumers’ complaints and challenges in the shortest possible time and best service delivery without any need to complain to the regulator.

    MTN, GLO, Etisalat, Airtel, Smile, Ntel, Spectranet, among others, sent representatives while advocacy associations including National Association of Telecoms Consumers (NATCOM) Association of Licensed Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ALTON), Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) among others, were also in attendance.

     

    Why Lagos supports NCC

     

    The Lagos State House of Assembly commended the NCC for tagging 2017- Year of the Nigerian Telecom Consumers which emphasises the protection and education of telecom consumers.

    Its Speaker, Mr. Mudashiru Obasa, who spoke on the occasion, said NCC’s regulatory expertise has paid off in the industry that boasts of about 155million subscribers with about 20million of them domiciled in Lagos.

    Represented by a member the House, Mr. Tunde Braimoh, the speaker said the state would support initiatives that will lead to consumers’ education and improved service delivery among operators. He said the House will not shy away from issues related to telecoms activities and the stakeholders, because of the relevance to the affairs of the populace.

    He said: “NCC has done very well with regards to issues on consumer protection and the regulatory initiatives that lead to improved quality service delivery to the people. As the representatives of the people, Lagos State House of Assembly will not shy away from telecoms activities, because they touch the affairs of our people.

    “However, we are being inundated with petitions regarding issues in the industry which informed our desire for easier channels to communicate with the regulator in finding lasting solutions to these challenges. Having said that, it is commendable that NCC’s regulations have paid off; for without such, there wouldn’t have been improvement on quality of service. We believe that the theme for this campaign will further endear NCC as consumer friendly regulator”.

    The speaker also urged the NCC to mandate mobile network operators to also launch consumer products beneficial even to the downtrodden.

     

    Hurdles

     

    ATCON:

    The President, ATCON, Olusola Teniola, praised the NCC for trying to address issues raised by at least 153 consumers, including its officials and staffers of the telcos. He said the regulator is trying to raise awareness about which code to use when they have challenges and which department to contact should their challenges remain unattended to. “This is commendable because it never used to be like this,” Teniola who is former CEO of IS Internet Solutions and now Client Partner, Detecon International, a subsidiary of Deutsch Telekom Group, Germany.

    He, however, said the legacy challenges that have threatened the industry must be addressed for a win-win situation for all the stakeholders in the telecoms industry project. He said while there are technical challenges facing the sector, there are others that non-technical such as the foreign (forex) palaver. He said for the telcos to meet the International Telecoms Union (ITU’s) benchmark of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which the NCC is deploying, the challenges must be addressed.

    He said Prof Dambatta has admitted that for there to be seamless service delivery in the country, no fewer than between 70,000 and 80,000 base transmission stations (BTS) will be needed. According to him, to meet the current huge deficit, more towers would have to be built with forex to meet the 30 per cent broadband penetration of next year according to the National Broadband Plan (NBP). The  less than 30,000 BTS in the country are congested to take existing traffic, adding that there is need to resolve the logjam on the right of way (RoW) to build more towers and optic fibre cables to address the huge demand.

    He said there is need for the NCC to collaborate with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on easing forex access by telcos, collaborate with security agencies on tekecoms equipment vandalism, collaborate with state governors on RoW and multiple taxation else the situation will be akin to beating up a child without giving him the room for improvement. “You will end up killing the child,” he said.

     

    NATCOMS

     

    NATCOMS President, Deolu Ogunbanjo also commended the NCC for the initiative. Like Teniola, he said the NCC should make the CBN see sense in giving telecoms equipment a new window to access forex. He said though the bank is encouraging SMEs to access forex, same gesture should be extended to the telecoms sector because of its enabling role to other sectors of the economy.

  • Zinox to Nigeria: take advantage of $19tr IoT market

    The Chairman, Zinox Technology Group, Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh, has urged policy makers in the information communications technology (ICT) space in the country to ensure that they take the right steps to ensure that the country benefits from the $19trillion market of Internet of Things (IoT)

    He said Nigeria and indeed, the African continent stand to gain immensely if they can leapfrog from their present deep slumber on ICT ecosystem development and engage the values of IoTs – whose estimated market potential is valued at $19 trillion by 2020.

    The Zinox chief who was justifying the decision of the firm to sponsor Chris Uwaje – the former president, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) to speak at the 2017 Global IoTs forum in Geneva, Switzerland, it is in furtherance of its corporate philosophy and superior business principle to continue the acceleration and development of the digital revolution of the country.

    Uwaje, also known as Oracle of the Nigeria IT profession, is the Africa Chair on Communications and Publicity- first Global Internet of Things Summit (GioTS) in Geneva. He will be speaking as a panelist on Africa perspectives and challenges on Ipv6.

    Zinox explained that with this sponsorship, it assumes leadership in the drive of national ICT Policy and strategy matters, where government should at all times be at the driver’s seat, adding that in the absence of this, and cognisance of the future requirements of 70 per cent youths that makeup Nigeria/Africa population, it took up the challenge toward sustainable progress of the nation and the continent.

    Uwaje was selected and invited to represent Africa and speak as a panelist of the Global Internet Version 6 (IPv6) Forum on the state and challenges of Ipv6.

    “IoT is rapidly evolving with the substantial risk of not paying attention to safety, reliability, privacy, security, and interoperability. Research has a fundamental role to enable a globally interoperable IoT and to make it right,” General Chair and President of the IoT Forum, Sebastien Ziegler, said.

    Also commenting on the importance of the forum, Co-Chair and President of IPv6 Forum, Latif Ladid, said: “GIoTS 2017 will attract experts from industry and research in current and emerging technologies such as 5G-based IoT, software defined IoT, IoT-centric cloud computing, including the Social Internet of Things.”

    According to the United Nations Development’s Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report of 2013 (UNDP,2013), Africa contributes 35 of the 45 poorest countries. Given these high poverty levels, most African governments (especially sub-Saharan Africa) are still struggling to provide basic needs such as food, shelter, health, water and sanitation and education among others and therefore technology innovations take a back seat. While the world’s Development Index stands at 0.694, that of sub-Saharan Africa is at 0.475.

    The IPv6 session will attract speakers from the five continents to outline the deployment efforts of IPv6-based IoT research and best practices. The deployment in different countries is taking different shapes and forms considering the differing continental user requirements at this stage of deployment. This session will try to harmonise and draw a common roadmap for deployment of IoT networking capabilities and architectural definitions to make sure “Internet of Things” are scalable, inclusive of several communication media, secure, future proof and viable for businesses and endusers.

  • WannaCry: Minister, NITDA, urge vigilance, awareness

    • Signal Alliance issues advisory

    The Federal Government has advised banks and other institutions in the country to engage world class cyber experts for cyber defence against the backdrop of recent attacks on computer facilities at the global level.

    The Minister of Communication, Mr Adebayo Shittu who expressed concern over the development, called for vigilance by stakeholders in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) and telecoms sector.

    He said the attacks on countries such as the United States during its last elections was a pointer to the vulnerability of any country, noting that such attacks could be directed at sensitive infrastructures through the internet to weaken the socio-economic activities of the country.

    The minister gave the advice at a briefing to mark The World Telecommunications and Information Society Day (WTISD 2017) in Abuja. He said pro-active measures should be taken by banks and other financial institutions, hospitals, schools and even military institutions to protect their telecoms facilities.

    The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said while the WannaCry or WannaCript ransomware attack has been contained and Nigeria largely spared from the attack, massive enlightenment, awareness campaign and proactive measures must be sustained in the industry to complement measures already put in place to swiftly deal with any reported incident. The efforts of all stakeholders in the IT industry are highly commendable and appreciated.

    Reports had shown that computer networks in more than 150 countries and more than 200,000 people had been affected by this attack, considered to be one of the biggest cybersecurity attacks in recent history. Traces in Nigeria appeared to be isolated as no major incident has been reported in the country.

    Its Director-General/CEO, Dr Isa Pantami, said as IT systems have now become part of peoples’ lives, the need for all to be vigilant and proactive as far as security is concerned cannot be overemphasised.

    “For users of Microsoft systems, old operating systems should be upgraded to the latest version (of Windows 10). This will enable them get the latest protection from Microsoft; the recent security update released by Microsoft, MS17-010, should be installed as soon as possible; and where necessary, Windows Defender Antivirus should be enabled as it helps in detecting this ransomware and similar attacks,” Dr Pantani said.

    He added that for systems that have been attacked, tools have been developed to unlock the files locked by this ransomware – the WannaDecrpyt or Wannakey, which have been found to have successfully decrypted systems infected with the ransomware.

    Also, Signal Alliance, a Microsoft enterprise partner has issued a WannaCry ransomware advisory to its clients and key users of Windows applications across the country.

    Speaking on the advisory, its Technology Lead on Security, Kelechi Agu, said: “As soon as we became aware of the unprecedented spread of the ransomware attack which was hitting tens of thousands of businesses, worldwide – including the entire British Health Care sector, we immediately gave our clients a breakdown on what we know about the malware responsible for the encryption attacks, and what they can do to stop it.”

     

  • Tackling increasing threat of virtual marauders

    Tackling increasing threat of virtual marauders

    At the weekend, the biggest cyberattack the world has ever witnessed happened. WannaCrypt ransomware worm was unleashed on the global community. The head of the European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol, described the attack as ‘unprecedented’ in its reach, with more than 200,000 victims in at least 150 countries. Although Nigeria was not affected, LUCAS AJANAKU writes on the need for governments and institutions to increase defence mechanism against vulnerabilities.

    Modern warfare has moved from mortar to mortar approach to the cyber space. Even the most powerful nations in the world have moved their battle turfs to the cyber space. They are now engaged in cyber espionage, targeting classified data from government agencies, circumventing the system, and getting the data for profit. Welcome to the world of cyber insecurity.

    To many countries caught in the web of cyber-attacks of last weekend, it was a big blow like a bolt from the blue. Of course, they knew an attack of such magnitude was possible, but what eluded them was when it would come.

    According to The Register, an online publication, the WannaCrypt ransomware worm, aka WanaCrypt or Wcry, exploded across 74 countries, infecting hospitals, businesses including Fedex, rail stations, universities, at least one national telco, and more organisations.

    In response, Microsoft released emergency security patches to defend against the malware for unsupported versions of Windows, such as XP and Server 2003, as well as modern builds.

    WannaCrypt is installed on vulnerable Windows computers by a worm that spreads across networks by exploiting vulnerability in Microsoft’s Server Message Block (SMB) file-sharing services. It specifically abuses a bug designated MS17-010 that Redmond patched in March for modern versions of Windows, and today for legacy versions – all remaining unpatched systems are therefore, vulnerable and can be attacked.

    This bug was, once upon a time, exploited by the National Security Agency (NSA) to hijack and spy on its targets. Its internal tool to do this, codenamed Eternalblue, was stolen from the agency, and leaked online in April – putting the United States (U.S) government cyber-weapon into the hands of any willing miscreant. Almost immediately, it was used to hijack thousands of machines on the internet.

    Now someone has taken that tool and strapped it to ransomware: the result is a variant of WannaCrypt, which  spreads via SMB and, after landing on a computer, encrypts as many files as it can find. It charges $300 or $600 in Bitcoin to restore the documents. It is adept at bringing offices and homes to a halt by locking away their data.

    And it installs Doublepulsar, a backdoor that allows the machine to be remotely controlled. That’s another stolen NSA tool leaked alongside Eternalblue. The malware is also controlled via the anonymising Tor network by connecting to hidden services to receive further commands from its masters.

    Fortunately, a kill switch was included in the code. When it detects that a particular web domain exists, it stops further infections. That domain was created earlier by a United Kingdom (UK) infosec bod, who spotted the dot-com in the reverse-engineered binary; that registration was detected by the ransomware, which immediately halted its worldwide spread.

    Connections to the magic domain  were sinkholed to a server in California, and the admins of the infected systems reaching out to the dot-com will be notified, we’re told. “Internet Protocol (IP) addresses from our sinkhole have been sent to FBI and ShadowServer so affected organisations should get a notification soon,” said the researcher. The infosec bod admitted they registered the domain first, then realised it was a kill switch.

    The worm uses the EternalBlue and DoublePulsar exploits swiped from the NSA’s arsenal of hacking tools. It would have been great if the bugs targeted by the agency had been patched years ago; instead, they were fixed by Microsoft in March just before the Shadow Brokers dumped the programmes online in April. It is assumed either the NSA or the brokers tipped off the Redmond giant so that updates to kill off the SMB bug could be pushed out before the exploits publicly leaked.

    So, yes, Microsoft issued security fixes to address the vulnerabilities attacked by those cyber-weapons, but as is the way with users and IT departments big and small, not everyone has patched, or can patch, and are now paying the price. The initial infection point appears to be spear-phishing emails, thrown at people within organisations, with the malware hidden in attachments that, when opened, trigger a cyber-contagion on the internal network. The malware is a hybrid design that has a worm element, allowing it to spread through internal structures for maximum effect.

    According to an analysis by Payload Security, the malware drops a number of programmes on the system, including Tor, and adds itself to the Windows Registry so it persists across reboots. It can fetch software modules to gain new abilities, and uses various techniques to hinder reverse-engineering: decrypted samples of the executables are available from the above links.

    The code encrypts a wide variety of documents on a computer, including any attached storage, and snatches any keys for remote-desktop access. It deletes volume snapshots, and disables system repair tools. It also scans the infected system’s settings to work out the user’s language, and pulls up a ransom demand in the correct lingo for the victim. It changes the desktop backdrop, too, to grab the victim’s attention.

    According to a study by Kaspersky, it appears the malware controllers are getting greedier as infection rates grow. The initial infections asked for $300 worth of Bitcoin, however later infection notices have upped this price to $600. A check on the Bitcoin strings showed that a few thousand dollars’ worth of Bitcoin have already been sent to the criminals.

    “We have recorded more than 45,000 attacks of the WannaCry ransomware in 74 countries around the world, mostly in Russia.

    “It’s important to note that our visibility may be limited and incomplete and the range of targets and victims is likely much, much higher,” said Kaspersky’s research team.

     

     

    NCC’s views

     

    Telecoms sector regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has stressed the need to focus on ensuring security in the cyber space. Its Executive Vice Chairman, Prof Garba Dambatta, said ICT has become the way to go.

    “We are mindful that ICT has today become a one-stop shop for modern tools of development, innovation, employment opportunities and indeed, a smarter world. As the world races towards the 5-G revolution and the internet of things, IoT, Nigeria must embrace, fully, the opportunities offered by ICT. Nigeria’s ICT initiatives must focus on cybercrimes and cyber security, indigenous software development, digital multi-media platforms, amongst others,” Prof Dambatta said during his remarks at public function in Lagos.

     

    NITDA advises

    MDAs, others

     

    The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) warned ministries department and agencies (MDAs) that “WannaCry” or “WannaCrypt”, spreads by itself between computers and does not require human interaction.

    It restricts access to the affected system as well as demanding for the payment of ransom. This attack, according to reports, has so far affected over 99 countries and 100,000 machines.

    Its Director-General, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, said the ransomware attack exploited vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows Operating System, especially those not currently supported such as Windows XP, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2003. Microsoft released a patch for the vulnerability in March and machines that were updated with the patch would have been automatically protected.

    Pantami said: “Should your system be infected by ransomware, isolate the system from your network to prevent the threat from further spreading. In addition, the following actions can be taken immediately: remove the system from network; do not use flash/pen drive, external drives on the System to copy files to other systems; format the system completely and get fresh OS copy installed; and contact NITDA Computer Emergency Readiness and Response Team (CERRT) for assistance. They can be reached via telephone on +2348023275039 or e-mail: support@cerrt.ng.

    “As a general precautionary measure and as the security of systems is our collective responsibility, we would like to recommend that individuals and organisations should regularly update their operating systems with the latest patches; regularly update their software applications with latest patches; avoid downloading and opening unsolicited files and attachments; adjust security software to scan compressed or archived files; and avoid indiscriminate use of wireless connections, such as Bluetooth or infrared ports.

    “NITDA is working with critical stakeholders to come up with ways in which the Nigerian cyberspace can be adequately protected. We, therefore, call on all Nigerians to support the Agency by doing their best at protecting themselves as well as the information and systems under their care.”

     

    Cisco’s opinion

     

    Cisco Systems, an American multinational technology conglomerate said budget constraints, poor compatibility of systems, and a lack of trained talent are the biggest barriers to advancing security postures by chief Security Officers (CSOs).

    The firm, in its latest Annual Cybersecurity Report (ACR), said leaders also revealed that their security departments are increasingly complex environments with 65 per cent of organisations using from six to more than 50 security products, increasing the potential for security effectiveness gaps.

    To exploit these gaps, ACR data showed criminals leading a resurgence of classic attack vectors, such as adware and email spam, the latter at levels not seen since 2010. Spam accounted for nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) of email with eight to 10 per cent, cited as malicious mails. Global spam volume is rising, often spread by large and thriving botnets.

    Cisco Nigeria’s General Manager,  Olakunle Oluruntimehin, said the penetration of mobile and growth in internet usage also means that people are more vulnerable to cybercrimes.

    He said: “That is why we leverage our partners, the Cisco Networking Academy programme and certifications in addition to typical customer enablement activities, to grow our security market share. We have a growing list of over 300 partners in Nigeria, covering security in verticals like retail, financial services, oil, healthcare, hospitality and public sector.

    “The Networking Academy is expanding its courses to include security everywhere by providing knowledge and capacity building partnering with government and private educational institutions. This aligns with the skills development and jobs creation goal of the government ensuring that we are also increasing skills in security IT. We currently have over 130 academies in Nigeria and have more academies joining this number on a quarterly basis.

    “This year, cyber is business, and business is cyber–that requires a different conversation, and very different outcomes. Relentless improvement is required and that should be measured via efficacy, cost, and well managed risk. The ACR demonstrates and justifies, answers to our struggles on budget, personnel, innovation and architecture.”

    Cybersecurity has changed drastically since the inaugural Cisco Annual Security Report in 2007. While technology has helped attacks become more damaging and defences become more sophisticated, the foundation of security remains as important as ever. In 2007, the ACR reported that web and business applications were targets, often via social engineering, or user-introduced infractions.

  • Phone maker eyes Nigeria market

    A smartphone manufacturer has set up its first factory in Nigeria’s commercial hub of Lagos to provide Africa’s biggest mobile market with low-cost smartphones amid an economic recession.

    AfriOne’s devices, using the Android operating system, will cost between N29,000 ($92) and N33,00, targeting middle-income buyers in a country of about 180 million people, according to Lekan Akinjide, director of strategy and government coordination at the company. Its first factory has an installed capacity to produce 120,000 units per month, with one other factory planned, he told Reuters at an event in Lagos.

    Parent company Contec Global invested $10 million in the project.

    Cheaper smartphones are pushing internet penetration in Nigeria, with most people getting online via mobile devices rather than computers. The country had 154 million active mobile-phone users as at February this year, according to data from the Nigeria Communications Commission’s website.

    Lagos-based AfriOne, which has developed a financial technology app, is also betting on the growth of e-commerce, which will account for 10 per cent of all retail sales in the continent’s largest economies by 2025, or some $75 billion in annual revenue, according to consulting firm McKinsey.

  • Airtel, Ericsson launch Nuvu

    Airtel Nigeria and Ericsson, a world-class telecommunications and equipment service company, have announced the launch of Nuvu (nuvu.tv), a subscription-based video-on-demand (VOD) service.

    Nuvu will provide subscribers access to more than 3,000 local and international TV and film titles, empowering Airtel customers to download content directly to their smartphones or tablets at no additional data cost during off-peak network times.

    Also, subscribers will be able to access the content off-line for up to 30 days after downloading.

    The service will launch initially as an Android app for smartphones. The app offers subscribers a personalised user interface with features that include bookmarking and personal recommendation.  The app will be available to other mobile platforms at a later time.

    Commenting on the new service, Chief Commercial Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Ahmad Mokhles, said: “Nuvu is a glowing testimony and clear demonstration of Airtel’s commitment to revolutionise Nigeria’s mobile Internet space with innovative offerings that will enrich the lives of consumers and empower them to succeed in their respective endeavours.”

    According to him, Nuvu is a game-changer that will excite, delight, engage and entertain telecoms consumers, offering them original premium and exclusive content.

    “Airtel is excited to collaborate with Ericsson to pioneer the new Nuvu innovation, a first of its kind in Nigeria. Airtel will continue to leverage world class partnership to create relevant and bespoke offerings that will reward telecoms consumers in Nigeria,” noted Mokhles.

  • Rack Centre: Nigerian firms meeting global standards

    The Managing Director, Rack Centre, Mr. Ayotunde Coker, has said Nigeria information technology firms are meeting global standards and will continue to do so.

    Coker, who was reacting to the firm’s attainment of the Tier III Tier Certification of Constructed Facility (TCCF) from the Uptime Institute, joining the elite data centres in the world to be certified and the first in the West African sub-region, said the firm will continue to strive to be the leader in data center service provider in the country.

    He said: “We are delighted that Rack Centre has achieved this certification by such a respected and distinguished global body as the Uptime Institute.  We are passionate that we have attained one of the highest standards and achieving the Uptime Institute Tier III TCCF certification validates this, and demonstrates to our existing and future customers, that here in Nigeria, we are meeting the highest standards at the global level.  Rack Centre is the most connected Tier III certified and truly carrier neutral data centre in Africa.  We are proud of this achievement.”

    Uptime Institute, through its Managing Director, EMEA, Mr Phil Collerton, commended Rack Centre for being the first facility to be awarded the Uptime Tier III TCCF certification in Nigeria. He said: “The certification clearly demonstrates Rack Centre’s commitment to its customers and its unwavering focus on not only designing, but also building a world class facility that meets the most demanding requirements. This data centre will continue to underpin the region’s economic development as more businesses and people join the digital ecosystem while also strengthening Rack Centres’ position as a highly resilient infrastructure hub for connectivity partners and end customers in the region.”

    Rack Centre, the sub-Sahara Africa’s premium data centre and colocation services provider. The TCCF certification was achieved after a thorough forensic assessment of all aspects of Rack Centre’s facilities and operations by Uptime Institute experts team from the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK).

    Uptime Institute is the global authority for data centre certification through its Tier Certification framework and the standard it sets is recognised as the global benchmark for quality and international best practices in data centre design, construction and operations.  This certification, therefore, demonstrates that Rack Centre facility and all its data centre elements are built as per the original Tier III design and engineering specifications and validates that it is meeting the defined availability of concurrent maintainability.

    Rack Centre is based in Oregun, Lagos, Nigeria and owned by Jagal, a Nigerian conglomerate holding that operates leading energy businesses and manages a diverse portfolio of investments is a state of the art data centre offering carrier neutral colocation services and provides over 6000 sqm (65,000sqft) of energy efficient and secure centre.

  • Cyber security experts urge intelligence sharing among banks

    Cyber security experts urge intelligence sharing among banks

    Cyber security experts have advised deposit money banks (DMBs) in the country to swallow their pride, collaborate and share intelligence in order to reduce ongoing losses to cyber crooks in the financial services sector.
    The experts who spoke in separate interviews on the sidelines of a cybersecurity conference tagged NaijaSecCon held at Landmark Centre, Lekki, Lagos, at the weekend, said the banks should stop suffering in silence by covering up their losses to cyber crooks, collaborate and share knowledge and intelligence to tackle the menace.
    The Federal Government said the estimated cost of cybercrime to Nigeria is 0.08 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP), which represents about N127 billion yearly.
    A senior cybersecurity expert, Chinedu Onwukike, lamented that because of the absence of collaboration among the DMBs, cyber criminals have kept walking away with their loot from the banks undetected.
    He said: “A lot of agencies have been created to tackle cybercrime but nothing serious has been done. It is very unfortunate that there are no forensic tests carried out after an attack and people get away with fraud.
    “There has to be collaboration in intelligence sharing by financial institutions to tackle cyber crimes; this is the practice in advanced societies where at the monthly meeting of the bank chiefs, they share threats. This is very important since all the banks work in the same ecosystem.”
    A Senior Cyber Security Specialist, Debra Okwuzi, lamented the mentality of organisations towards cyber security, adding that people wait until there is a major breach before taking action.
    “The mentality about cyber security is that if there is no major attack, people will not get serious; we have had regulatory bodies which made it compulsory for financial institutions to abide by certain cyber security standards and regulatory framework. As long as the motive is right, the support will be heavily required.
    “We are hoping that there will be a lot of partnership in the years ahead. Attempts to breach will continue to be around but collaboration and sharing of note are vital,” she said.
    An ethical hacker and convener of NaijaSecCon, Mr Rotimi Akinyele, lamented that there have been several conferences where the issue of cyber security has occupied the front burner, adding that all have been talk shops without much to see.
    “In Nigeria, there have been a lot of conferences on cyber security. But we realised that each time we go to these conferences, we have the same speakers, saying the same thing. For us, we are quite passionate about changing the way things are done. We understand the processes and policies involved. We thought of setting up a conference where we show people how we aim at addressing these issues of cyber security.
    “We also realised that people travel for some of these conferences; therefore we decided to offer them the knowledge and information which they travel out in search of. We want to use this opportunity to identify cyber talents in Nigeria by organising a competition where we will give out N200,000 to winner as a way of encouraging the winner. Also, to identify cyber security talents and interestingly we have people coming from across the country,” he said.
    According to him, awareness is critical to fighting cyber-crimes. “Everything we are doing has to do with awareness. People invest in cyber solution, buy firewalls worth millions, but in the end people need to be aware because there are some basic things which people are not aware. We are starting with awareness, this is going to be a gradual thing; it is not just going to be a one-off.
    “Yearly we will be organising this conference and it is going to be bigger. The interesting thing about the programme is that people are willing to support. They believe that what we are doing will change the future of cyber security in Nigeria,” Akinyele said.
    Debra said the organisation is speaking to other agencies to ensure that this will not just be a Lagos-based programme, but nationwide. “We are focusing on the African continent also. There is internal cyber security issues which we need to solve, for instance terrorism. Before talking about the global body, we need to talk about what happens internally. There has to be a lot of synergy on how to address cyber-crimes. Cyber-crime is growing exponentially, the issue has been in the media and this has attracted government attention to pass the Cybercrime Bill into an Act,” she said.
    The National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj-Gen Babagana Munguno (rtd), who spoke during the inauguration of the Cybercrime Advisory Council, at the Office of NSA (ONSA), Abuja, lamented that the activities of cyber crooks have taken huge toll on the economy.
    Munguno, who is the Chairman of the 31-member Council, lamented that the cost of to the nation is quite significant, saying that the “activities of hackers and cyber criminals in recent times have threatened government presence, economic activities and security of Nigerians and vital infrastructure connected to the internet. ”
    He said: “The 2014 Annual report of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), shows that, between year 2013 and 2014, fraud on e-payment platform of the Nigerian banking sector increased by 183 per cent. Also, a report published in 2014 by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, UK, estimated the annual cost of cybercrime to Nigeria at about 0.08 per cent of our GDP, representing about N127 billion.
    “Global tracking of cyber-attacks indicate that Nigeria is among countries with high cases of software piracy, intellectual property theft and malware attacks. The situation is a serious challenge to our resolve to take advantage of the enormous opportunities that Internet brings, while balancing and managing its associated risks.”
    According to him, the situation was made possible due to lack of awareness of cyber-security and poor enforcement of guidelines and minimum standards for security of government websites, particularly those hosting sensitive databases of Nigerians.
    He emphasised the need to take serious action to protect Nigeria’s national cyberspace as a national security requirement.

  • Airtel, SOLO, RenMoney drive smartphones penetration

    AS a way of driving smart-phone penetration in the country, Airtel, SOLO and RenMoney have partnered to offer telecoms consumers across the country an opportunity to own premium, quality devices.
    Under the partnership, customers can subscribe to the special smartphone bundle from Airtel for just N4,150/month for 12 months and walk away with the SOLO Aspire M for free.
    This special Smartphone bundle gives telecoms consumers 1GB data plan; 60 minutes voice call, 60 SMS and unlimited Social Media access, monthly.
    The partners explained that this offer is in line with their quest to democratise mobile Internet access and ownership while empowering more telecoms consumers to connect with the larger society as well as fulfill their personal, professional and business endeavours; uninhibited by rising costs and reducing purchasing power.
    Commenting on the partnership, Chief Commercial Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Ahmad Mokhles, said the telecoms company is committed to creating opportunities that will enable telecoms consumers enjoy the very best of mobile experience by providing innovative solutions that enrich a customers’ life.
    “With our wide spectrum coverage and super-fast data services, Airtel is well positioned as Nigeria’s number one mobile internet company, offering telecoms consumers bespoke and innovative value offerings that will empower them to succeed in their respective endeavours,”he said.

  • Yudala acquires Yes Mobile

    Nigeria’s pioneer composite e-commerce company, Yudala, has acquired Yes Mobile, a cosmopolitan high-value retail outfit with a multiplicity of stores in Lagos.

    A senior Management staff of Yes Mobile, Onoidem Idiong, described the take-over as detailed and strategic.

    “The process commenced a few months back and was concluded about a couple of weeks ago. We are happy to see the number one e-commerce and pioneer composite retail company take charge. In a few days’ time, Yudala’s striking fuchsia pink will become our new colour and we shall start exciting our customers with other world-class products beyond ICT products and accessories,” he said.

    Head of Media Relations at Yudala, Gideon Ayogu, confirmed the development, noting that Yudala has been eyeing Yes Mobile as well as a few other sterling start-ups in its strategy to become the undisputed leader in the e-commerce landscape.

    “I can say it is the most creative partnership or acquisition I have experienced as it was target-driven with a lot of knowledge on display. Nigerians will certainly start experiencing the results of this acquisition within a few days. We have a lot on our sleeves as a solid and fastest growing e-commerce company in Africa. This is in addition to the over 25 physical stores we have launched in 18 months and the many job opportunities these have unlocked for Nigerians.

    “With this takeover, Nigerians now have additional ease and convenience of shopping a variety of products including choice wines and spirits, fashion items, kitchen appliances, electronics and much more from more physical locations, while still enjoying the revolutionary Yudala advantage. These include the freedom to shop online and enjoy free delivery nationwide; ordering online and self-fulfilling your order by picking up from the nearest store or you can just walk into any of our stores nationwide to see and experience the products before buying. As you know, no other e-commerce company offers these in Nigeria.”

    Yudala will add the Yes Mobile chain of store locations and other resources to its rapidly growing retail platform, with the erstwhile Yes stores will fully assume the striking colours, look-and-feel and architecture of the Yudala brand.

    With an increasing number of stores spread nationwide and many more in the pipeline, Yudala’s acquisition of Yes Mobile will see an astronomical increase in the physical store presence of the revolutionary e-commerce company whose bold and futuristic fusion of an online platform with offline stores has raised the bar in the e-commerce industry.

    Head of Offline Retail, Oyeronke Atoyebi, said the acquisition of Yes Mobile is in line with Yudala’s mandate of expanding the scope of e-commerce in the country.

    “At Yudala, our roadmap is very clear. Apart from being the first company to combine online and offline in the e-commerce world, thereby offering Nigerians an upgraded and futuristic experience of e-commerce; our status as the largest online and offline retail chain is also well-known. It is in line with this status of ours that we have embarked on the expansion of our offline store presence through the strategic acquisition of Yes