Two in EFCC net over online scam

ITRealms:

The duo of Egbedayo Semilore and Elijah Jeremiah, aka (jerry) are now cooling off in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) reports ITRealms.

Jerry, 29, a self-styled fashion Director of Datsol Industries Limited was arrested for alleged Internet fraud. While Semilore, 26, engages in Internet love scam, Jeremiah, 29, is a predator on online auction sites.

EFCC confirmed to ITRealms that Semilore while posing as an Afghan based US Army officer with the names Sergeant Shaft Pagan and Perrie Edingson allegedly defrauded unsuspecting ladies. His last victim is one P. J. (full names withheld), a US national from whom he claimed to have obtained about Four million naira (N4m) in tranches and bought himself a car.

Arrested differently, the suspects have both made confessional statements. Jeremiah confessed to using fake instruments to order goods from China through online auction sites. According to him, he downloads Letters of Credit purportedly issued by Scotia Online Financial Services of Scotia bank worldwide from Google with which he pays for his purchases.

The auctioneers, unaware of his antics often fall victim of his game by shipping the goods to him ahead of confirmation of payment.

Semilore, during interrogation also confessed to have used proceeds of romance scam to sustain a flamboyant lifestyle and bought himself a 2010 Lexus car which he registered in his mother’s name.

Operatives recovered several items from the suspects. One laptop, three modems, one iphone  and two Nokia phones, international Passport, forged Union Bank Statement of Account with NUBAN number:10141411389 for Datsol Industries Limited  and an envelope containing several documents were recovered from Jeremiah.

Also, three identity cards bearing different names and biodata,  a 2010 Black Toyota Lexus car with registration number (Lagos) SMK 475 EH, two laptops and one Blackberry Passport phones  were recovered from Semilore.  Several scam mails were also found and retrieved from his laptops.

They will be arraigned in court as soon as investigation is completed.

  
Chuks Egbune/GEE
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Pix: Semi and Jerry @EFCC

#YesToIANA: ISOC applause for US Senate

ITRealms:

The Internet Society has urged the United States Senate to say yes to the continuous implementation of the multistakeholders agreement on the transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) reports ITRealms.

ISOC in giving this applause noted that the US Senators on both sides of the aisle have shown great encouraging interest on evaluating the transition of the oversight of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions to the global Internet community on the facts rather than inaccurate political rhetorics.

The President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ISOC, Kathryn Brown singed out the Major Leader, McConnel and his team for all the support on this journey so far.

“We thank Majority Leader McConnell and his staff for recognizing the implications of blocking the multistakeholder consensus of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) community on the transition,” she said.

According to her, it is important for Congress to ensure that any final Continuing Resolution does not delay or block the transition.

“A delay could actually increase – not decrease – the possibility of international government control of the Internet and will signal to the global community that we do not believe in the multistakeholder model of governance,” ISOC chairperson said.

Brown also noted that this transition has been built upon a bipartisan consensus for almost twenty years through multiple administrations.

“The time has finally arrived to remove the last direct United States governmental role in ICANN's operation,” she said.

ISOC, she said, believes that the transition will further strengthen the Internet as a stable, resilient and secure tool for empowering billions of people across the globe for decades to come.

“We urge the Congress to say #yestoIANA,” she said.

Oya Midele/GEE

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N500m bribe to Presidency: MTN refutes allegation

ITRealms:

The MTN Nigeria has refuted a N500m bribery allegation arising from the fine recently issued by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) due to infractions committed by the mobile network operator, reports ITRealms.

An online whistle blower, ITRealms gathered, had proclaimed that the Chief of Staff (CoS) to President Muhammadu Buhari, Alhaji Abba Kyari took kickback worth N500m from the telecommunication mobile operator to subvert the incurred fine through his office to less than initially charged.

This brought a lot of questioning at the Presidency, especially the so-called anti-corruption crusade of the federal government.

The report also alleged that ‘physical’ evidence to affirm that actually bribe exchanged hands was presented to President Buhari sequel to his trip to the United National General Assembly.

But reacting on our inquiry, MTN dismissed the allegation in a press statement made available to ITRealms.

MTN said, its attention has been drawn to an online report alleging that a top official in the Presidency took a payment ‘from operators of MTN’ towards reducing the fine.

The Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Ferdi Moolman, said that MTN Nigeria has no knowledge of this and the allegation is therefore denied. 

Although the MTN Nigeria fine was eventually resolved with the NCC a few weeks back, even though the earlier report said the deal may have been concealed as part of Sallah homage.

Stressing the evidence was presented to President Buhari several times including during the Sallah holiday.

 

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ATU welcomes Iridium as associate member

ITRealms:

History was made at the first-ever African Telecommunications Union (ATU) preparatory meeting for the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) in Nairobi, Kenya as Iridium Communications Inc was welcomed into the ATU family, reports ITRealms.

According to ATU Secretary General Abdoulkarim Soumaila, Iridium has joined the ATU as an Associate Member.

ITRealms gathered that the new membership was climaxed by a meeting between the ATU Secretary General Abdoulkarim Soumaila and Iridium Executive Director, Regulatory, Tatiana Lawrence, at the Nairobi meeting.

Soumaila noted that ATU as a specialized agency of the Organization of the African Union (AU) in the field of telecommunications is leading the continent in fostering developments of information and communications technologies infrastructure and services.

ATU, he said, represents the interests of its Member States at global decision-making conferences and promotes initiatives aimed at integrating the region’s markets, attracting Information and Communication Technology (“ICT”) infrastructure investment, and building institutional and human capacity. 

Chief legal officer at Iridium, Thomas Hickey, the company is proud of its new membership in the leading telecommunications organization in Africa. 

“As a provider of connectivity across the African continent, we are very happy to be in a position formally to contribute to its important work over the years to come,” he said.

Iridium, ITRealms equally reports will be engaging with the organization on preparations for International Telecommunication Union (ITU) conferences and assemblies, which includes the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2019, as well as satellite policies and other relevant matters.

ITRealms further gathered that Iridium prides itself as the only mobile voice and data satellite communications network that spans the entire globe. 

Remmy Nweke/ED,Ops

 

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Celebration galore for Gov. Dickson as wife delivers quadruplets

ITRealms:

In less than 24 hours after he secured victory at the Court of Appeal Abuja, over the All Progressive Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the last election, Chief Timipre Sylva, the Executive Governor of Bayelsa State, Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson was visited by quadruplets, via his wife, Dr. (Mrs) Rachael Dickson, reports ITRealms.

Delivered of a baby boy and three girls in an undisclosed hospital in the United States of America, ITRealms gathered that both the mother and children are in good condition.

Affirming these bundle of joy to ITRealms, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Dickson, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said the blessing was particularly for the family and Bayelsans. “…Because this bundle of joy is coming after many years of praying and waiting upon the Lord.”


Governor Dickson thanked his friends, family members and Bayelsans for their prayers and support and enjoined them to continue to pray for the family.

Uju N. Dominic/GEE
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Hacked 500m Yahoo emails: What you should do

ITRealms:

As the news of some 500 million Yahoo electronic mail (email) accounts hacked in 2014, continue to trend, experts have proffered some immediate solutions including the usage of ‘Yahoo Account Key’ reports ITRealms.

According to some security experts from Yahoo, every account holder has been advised to take three distinct actions.

These actions, ITRealms gathered include that every Yahoo account holder should immediately change their password, especially if they have not done some since 2014.

They also advised that account holders to change their security questions and answers relating to their password on Yahoo.

Further, ITRealms gathered that experts canvassed Yahoo account holders change other accounts with same information if any and mostly same with their Yahoo account details.

The company further recommended that users avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails and that they be cautious of unsolicited communications that ask for personal information. 

Additionally, Yahoo asks users to consider using Yahoo Account Key, a simple authentication tool that eliminates the need to use a password altogether. 

Meanwhile Yahoo is pointing accusing finger on government, although it did not mention which of the country’s government is reference, but insisted that users should change their password as soon as possible.

According to a press statement made available to ITRealms by Yahoo Incorporated quoted the chief information security officer, Bob Lord, as saying that a recent investigation by Yahoo! confirmed that a copy of certain user account information were stolen from the company's network in late 2014 by what it believes is a state-sponsored actor. 

ITRealms was also informed that the account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords, most of which were with bcrypt and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. 

The ongoing investigation, Yahoo said, suggests that stolen information did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank account information; payment card data and bank account information are not stored in the system that the investigation has found to be affected. 

“Based on the ongoing investigation, Yahoo believes that information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen and the investigation has found no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo's network. Yahoo is working closely with law enforcement on this matter,” part of the press statement read. 

Yahoo, therefore said, its notifying potentially affected users and has taken steps to secure their accounts. 

“These steps include invalidating unencrypted security questions and answers so that they cannot be used to access an account and asking potentially affected users to change their passwords. Yahoo is also recommending that users who haven't changed their passwords since 2014 do so,” the company said.

Advising users to review their online accounts for suspicious activity and to change their password and security questions and answers for any other accounts on which they use the same or similar information used for their Yahoo account.

ITRealms recalls that online intrusions and thefts by state-sponsored actors have become increasingly common across the technology industry. 

Just as Yahoo and other companies have launched programmes to detect and notify users when a company strongly suspects that a state-sponsored actor has targeted an account. Since the inception of Yahoo's programme in December 2015, independent of the recent investigation, approximately 10,000 users have received such a notice.

Nenye Dom/GEE

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