Kwami Ahiabenu is Highway Africa Fellow 2016

ITRealms:

The chief executive officer of Ghana-based Penplusbytes, Mr. Kwami Ahiabenu II, has been conferred the highest award of Highway Africa Fellow at the just concluded 2016  Telkom-Highway Africa Awards and Gala Dinner held in Rhodes University, South Africa, reports ITRealms.

The Highway Africa 2016 theme was  on “The Internet and the Media – Celebrations, Reflections and the Future.“ 

The citation accompanying the award stated in part that “Kwami Ahiabenu is a Ghanaian visionary. 15 years ago he set Penplusbytes – an institution dedicated to the training of journalists in digital media. 

"From the outset Kwami reached out to Highway Africa and sought to collaborate around joint training and the covering of elections on the continent using mobile and social media. 

"Over the years, Kwami has made his way to Highway Africa to deliver presentations and training workshops. This year he will be focusing on Social Media and Elections. A true friend of Highway Africa, we wish to recognise Kwami Ahiabenu as a Highway Africa Fellow.”

Excited Ahiabenu II, said it is a great honor to be named Highway Africa Fellow, and went on to dedicate the award to his family, hardworking board and team members of Penplusbytes.

He expected that the award propels Penplusbytes forward in its vision of being a leading institution for promoting effective governance using technology in Africa and beyond.

ITRealms recalls that Highway Africa is the world’s largest annual gathering of African journalists to deliberate on new digital technologies and its related issues.

The 2016 event marked 20 years of championing Africa’s debates on journalism, media, Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Nenye Dom/GEE

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Galaxy Note 7: Samsung begins replacement programme in Nigeria

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Samsung Electronics West Africa Limited (SEWA) has commenced a replacement programme for the faulty Samsung Galaxy Note7 in Nigeria, reports ITRealms.

Just as the electronic company said its differing the official launch of the product, Samsung Galaxy Note 7 in Nigeria, but is accommodating replacement of the device eventhough its yet to launch officially into the local market.

ITRealms recalls that this is coming on the heels of the device globally due to isolated battery cell problems.

On September 2, 2016, Samsung had announced an official Galaxy Note7 replacement programme due to battery cell manufacturing error which had led to a few reported incidents.

In a statement, the company stated that “since customers’ safety is top priority, all Galaxy Note7 purchased are eligible for replacement regardless of the original place of purchase.” 

"Although the Galaxy Note7 has not been released in Nigeria, the current Galaxy Note7 users are kindly advised to visit the nearest Samsung Authorized Service Centre for immediate assistance about replacement program.

“We acknowledge the inconvenience this may have caused in the market, but this is to ensure that Samsung continues to deliver the highest quality products to Samsung customers. Samsung is completely committed to fixing this problem and ensuring the highest level of safety and satisfaction for its customers.”

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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NITDA boss visits Nigeria Computer Society

ITRealms:

Acting Director-General (DG) of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Dr. Vincent Olatunji, recently visited the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) on a working visit, reports ITRealms.

The courtesy visit attracted the leadership of NCS led by its president, Prof. Adesola Aderounmu,

Dr. Adesina Sodiya, President ITSSP, Iyiola Ayoola, Acting Executive Secretary NCS, Mrs Ola Owolabi, Deputy President NCS.

Others include the Provost College of Fellows NCS, Deacon Ojinta Oji Alala, Chairman Ethics Committee NCS, Dr. (Mrs) Titilola Akinlade,  and Chairman Education Committee NCS, Rogba Adeoye.

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Pix: L-R: Dr. Adesina Sodiya, President ITSSP, Iyiola Ayoola, Acting Executive Secretary NCS, Mrs Ola Owolabi, Deputy President NCS,  Dr. Vincent Olatunji, Acting DG NITDA, Prof. Sola Aderounmu, President NCS, Deacon Ojinta Oji Alala, Provost College of Fellows NCS, Dr. (Mrs) Titilola Akinlade, Chairman Ethics Committee NCS, Rogba Adeoye Chairman Education Committee NCS.

Approved! DBI Kano to run as Innovation Enterprise School

ITRealms:

The Kano campus of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), Kano State has been approval to operate as an Innovation Enterprise Institution, reports ITRealms.

DBI, ITRealms recalls is a specialized institution committed to the creation of a knowledge-based information society in Nigeria through human capacity building in Telecommunication and Information & Communication Technology established by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in 2004 with its main campus in Abuja, with additional five outreach campuses across the nation.

Confirming this to ITRealms, Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, noted that the approval was conveyed to DBI by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) recently.

He also said that the letter conveying the approval and signed by Executive Secretary, NBTE, Dr. M.A Kazaure on behalf of the Minister of Education Mallam Adamu Adamu informed DBI Kano should operate as Innovation Enterprise Institution with effect from May 3, 2016.

According to the letter, the Enterprise Institution should run the following programmes:

National Innovation Diploma (NID) for Telecommunication Technology, Multimedia Technology, Networking and system Security, Computer Software Engineering and Computer Hardware Engineering among others.

“The approval, “according to NBTE”, is subject to the institutions strict compliance with the Federal Government’s terms and conditions governing the operations of Innovation Enterprise Institutions”.

Part of the terms contained in the letter is that “the approval is subject to DBI admitting not more than one stream of 30 students for each of the programmes”.

Admission of the students into the approved programmes should commence from 2016/2017 session, it added.

The approval from the NBTE followed a visitation jointly carried out by the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Board for Technical Education.

A visible excited Director, of DBI, Dr. Ike Adinde said this approval is in the right direction, pointing out that with this development DBI now has regional centres in Lagos, Kano, Enugu, (Enugu State), Yola (Adamawa State), Asaba, (Delta State).

The institution’s facilities include fully equipped training rooms, multimedia teaching aids, video conference facilities among others.

Remmy Nweke/GEE 

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60 Niger Delta students gain SPDC full scholarships

ITRealms:

The latest batch of 60 children from the Niger Delta have been awarded the special secondary school scholarship of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Joint Venture, under its Cradle to Career which covers tuition and all other bills for six years in four of the topmost private secondary schools in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, reports ITRealms.

The 60 benefiting students drawn from Brookstone Secondary School, Jephthah Comprehensive College, Archdeacon Brown Educational Centre (ABEC) and Bloombreed High School in Port Harcourt were placed on full scholarship for their secondary education, after a two-week orientation programme with introductory courses in academics, character and psychology.

ITRealms also reports that the students are the seventh set of beneficiaries and they bring the total number of beneficiaries since inception of the Cradle to Career programme to 410.

The Managing Director of SPDC and Chairman, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Osagie Okunbor, said, this year, the first set of beneficiaries completed their secondary education and the report available indicated that about all of them recorded excellent performance in the school certificate and unified tertiary matriculation examinations.

“It means the aims of the programme are being achieved,” said Okunbor who was represented by the General Manager, External Relations SPDC, Mr. Igo Weli, at the award ceremony in Port Harcourt at the weekend, the MD said SPDC and its joint venture partners have sustained the scholarship initiative despite the current economic challenges because they see education as a right for every child and not a privilege.

Dr Patricia Ogbonnaya, Mrs Elizabeth Alagoa and Dr Moses Onoriode Bragiwa, representatives of the Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta states Commissioners for Education respectively, extolled the Cradle to Career scholarship scheme for complementing their governments’ investments in education. They praised the transparent selection process and the human capital development benefits of the programme to the region.

“SPDC has a passion for investing in people and we are happy to report that students in the programme have over the years been on the top of their classes in their respective schools. We thank Shell and their joint venture partners for helping to ameliorate the problems of the Niger Delta,” said Dame Christie Toby, the proprietress of one of the implementing schools.

The SPDC JV launched the Cradle to Career initiative in 2010 to provide for bright indigent students and improve on the positive results of its other portfolio of scholarship schemes for local and international undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

Shell Companies in Nigeria have a long history of supporting education through scholarships and other initiatives. In 2015, a total of $10.1 million was invested in scholarships by the SPDC Joint Venture and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo.) Grants were awarded to 930 secondary school students and 638 university undergraduates in 2015, with a total of 10,401 (secondary) and 3,532 (university) grants given over the last five years.

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Pix: L-R: General Manager, External Relations of SPDC, Mr. Igo Weli; Master Anioki Godfirst (Bayelsa State Beneficiary); Master Ibojoh Godwin (Delta state beneficiary); Miss Blessing Chioma Eric (Rivers State beneficiary); Mrs. Elizabeth E. Alagoa, Director for Secondary Education – Bayelsa State Ministry of Education and Dr. Moses Bragiwa, Director for Basic and Secondary Education – Delta State Ministry of Education, In Port Harcourt.

Intel, TPG establish world’s largest pure-play cybersecurity firms worth $4.2bn

ITRealms:

The duo of Intel Corporation and leading global alternative asset firm, TPG have established the world’s largest pure-play cybersecurity firms worth $4.2bn, reports ITRealms.

This collaboration, ITRealms reports saw to Intel and TPG jointly investing in spin-out of Intel Security in a transaction valuing the business to the tune of $4.2 billion.

ITRealms gathered that Intel received $3.1 billion in cash and retained 49 per cent stake after completion of the transaction, while TPG owns 51 per cent of the new company, which will be named McAfee, as the leading independent cybersecurity company

Industry observers said the investment reflects TPG’s confidence in Intel security’s industry-leading enterprise and consumer businesses, strong market position, and business momentum, which positions new company as one of the world’s largest pure-play cybersecurity firms.

According to Intel senior vice president and Intel Security general manager, Mr. Chris Young said existing management team would lead the new company following transaction closure.

Through this transaction, TPG, a leading global alternative asset firm with demonstrated expertise in growing profitable software companies and carve-out investments, and Intel, a global technology leader that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices, will work together to position McAfee as a strong independent company with access to significant financial, operational and technology resources.

Mr. Young also said that with the new investment from TPG and continued strategic backing of Intel, the new entity is expected to capitalize on significant global growth opportunities through greater focus and targeted investment.

The new company, ITRealms reports, will be one of the world’s largest pure-play cybersecurity companies. Just as last year, Intel Security unveiled a new strategy that refocused the business on endpoint and cloud as security control points, as well as actionable threat intelligence, analytics and orchestration.

“This new strategy allows customers to detect and respond to more threats faster and with fewer resources,” Young enthused.

Reacting to this development, Brian Krzanich, the chief executive officer, Intel, noted that security remains important in everything at Intel and going forward they company will continue to integrate industry-leading security and privacy capabilities in its products from the cloud to billions of smart, connected computing devices.

“As we collaborate with TPG to establish McAfee as an independent company, we will also share in the future success of the business and in the market demand for top-flight security solutions, creating long-term value for McAfee’s customers, partners, employees and Intel’s shareholders. Intel will continue our collaboration with McAfee as we offer safe and secure products to our customers,” Krzanich said.

The Co-Founder and Co-CEO of TPG, Jim Coulter, they believe that McAfee will thrive as an independent company.

“With TPG’s investment, along with continued support from Intel, McAfee will sharpen its focus and become even more agile in its response to today’s rapidly evolving security sector. TPG is excited to partner with Intel and McAfee management to accelerate growth of the business by enhancing its go-to-market strategy and continuing to grow and strengthen its core product offerings” Mr. Coulter assured.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Cybercriminals target health records, 1m compromised says expert

ITRealms:

Medical records have been touted as increasingly targeted by cybercriminals, just as 100 million records have been lately compromised, reports ITRealms.

According to the Area Manager for East and West Africa at Check Point Software Technologies, Rick Rogers, at the recent Healthcare Innovation Summit (HIS), quoted the data from the United States (US) which showed that 89 per cent of healthcare institutions suffered a security breach and were twice more likely to be targeted than other organisations.

Underscoring the fact that prevention is better than cure, he noted that the healthcare industry, arguably is one of the most technologically advanced considering the gadgets and devices now used to monitor health statistics and perform medical procedures, is ironically among the most ‘unhealthy’ when it comes to network security.

Healthcare record theft, he said, increased a shocking 1100 per cent this year with more than 100 million records compromised worldwide, stressing that the biggest threat, according to KPMG, comes from external attackers at 65 per cent, while malware tops the list of information security concerns.

He pointed out that with technological abilities, there is multi-faceted hindering good information security comprising valuable data, ageing infrastructure, complex networks, no budget and easy targets, coupled with lack of understanding and awareness.

On valuable data, he said, comprises data collected and stored by hospitals and other organisations, such as medical aid schemes, is up to 10 times more valuable to cybercriminals than credit card information.

Roger noted that due to the sheer volume of information gathered about individuals and the fact that people see an increased shift to digital medical records, which makes it easy to commit fraud and identity theft. He stressed that given the value of this data on the black market, cyber-attacks are becoming ever more sophisticated in their attempts to hack healthcare institutions, to name a few.

Nenye Dom/GEE

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AU’s STC-CCIT session ends in Mali without quorum

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The first extraordinary session of the Specialized Technical Committee of the African Union on Communication and Information and Communication Technologies (extra STC-CCIT held in Bamako, Mali without a quorum, reports ITRealms.

The meeting expected to be made up of Ministerial experts was hosted by the government of Mali saw 12 members of the African Union (AU) in attendance out of the 54 membership.

ITRealms gathered that the meeting which ended at the weekend was marred by lack of the required quorum although the meeting went on to examine two-agenda items on Internet Governance and cybersecurity and fight against cybercrime.

A communique made available to ITRealms at the end of the meeting showed that the opening ceremony was graced by the Minister of Digital Economy and Communication of the Republic of Mali, Mr. Mountaga Tall.

Participants at the Conference followed the key points of Mr. Mountaga speech who asked them to be more aware and mobilized against the political, democratic, cultural and strategic governance of the Internet and the issues of cybersecurity and cybercrime.

In addition, ITRealms reports that despite the quorum, CTS on Communication and ICT adopted the report of experts which primarily contains the AU Declaration on Internet Governance and the African global approach on Cyber Security issues and fight against cybercrime.

On Internet Governance issues, CTS submitted for adoption of the AU Declaration on Internet Governance to the legislative organs of the African Union.

While on cybersecurity and fight against cybercrime, they made recommendations to the Executive Council of the African Union for review.

The Ministers stressed the crucial role of the Internet Governance and Cybersecurity in achieving the objectives of the AU Agenda 2063 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals for dynamic and prosperous Africa.

At the end of the deliberations, the African Ministers in charge of Communications and Information and Communication Technologies welcomed the spirit of responsibility, conciliation and cordiality that prevailed throughout the Conference of Ministers.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Why Presidency sanctioned officer over ‘change begins with me’ speech scandal

ITRealms:

The Presidency has lamented what it called ‘serious oversight’ on the alleged speech plagiarising President Barack Obama’s 2008 inaugural speech, reports ITRealms.

The Senior Special Adviser (SSA) to the President Muhammadu Buhari on Media & Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said the oversight will be thoroughly investigated and appropriate sanction meted.

Although he did not give timeline on when to expect out of the investigations, Shehu quoted President Muhammadu Buhari as having ordered prompt and appropriate disciplinary action be taken against those responsible for a wrongful insertion in his speech delivered on September 8, 2016 at the launch of the ``Change Begins with Me’’ campaign.

He noted that they have observed that the similarities between a paragraph in President Obama’s 2008 Victory Speech and what President Buhari read in paragraph nine of the sixteen-paragraph address while inaugurating the Campaign on Thursday, September 8, 2016 are too close to be passed as coincidence.

According to him, there was a mistake by an overzealous staff and we regret that this has happened.
Already, a Deputy Director in the Presidency has accepted responsibility for the insertion of the contentious paragraph.

“This serious oversight will be investigated thoroughly and appropriate sanction meted,” he assured.

The Presidency wishes to state in the clearest possible terms that it regrets this unfortunate incident and will ensure that this does not happen again.

President Buhari urges Nigerians to look beyond this incident and focus on the message of change which the country needs in order to restore our cherished value systems.

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Global registrant survey final phase on showcase

ITRealms:

The Los Angeles-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has unveiled the final phase findings of its two-phased global registrant survey, reports ITRealms.

The study, ITRealms gathered was conducted by Nielsen, examines domain name registrants’ perceived sense of trust, choice and experience in the current domain name landscape.

The completion of this study, ITRealms also gathered conclude the separate consumer and registrant survey efforts that served as inputs for a community-based review team assessing the new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) Programme in terms of Competition, Consumer trust and consumer choice (CCT).

President of ICANN’s Global Domains Division, Mr. Akram Atallah disclosed at the weekend that the findings of this survey are similar to phase one results, which showed there is stability across the domain name landscape.

“The global registrant and consumer studies will play an important role in measuring the success of the new gTLD Programme. I look forward to the CCT Review team’s interim report later this year,” he said, stressing that the online survey had participants which included 3,349 domain name registrants aged 18+ in 24 countries throughout Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and South America. The survey was administered in 18 languages.

ITRealms also gathered that some of the key findings include perceived awareness of new gTLDs remains steady, declines with legacy gTLDs.

“New gTLDs that were in both phases of the survey show similar awareness levels, with higher awareness reported in South America and Asia Pacific. Awareness of several legacy gTLDs dropped slightly by five to seven percentage points.

On among new gTLD registrants, registering a single domain remains the most common practice, the survey showed that more than 30 per cent of survey respondents indicated they registered a name in a new gTLD.

Of those who registered domains in a new gTLD, 52 per cent had registered one name only, while 34 per cent said they registered two to three domain names. While survey reported registration of new gTLDs is highest in the Asia Pacific region.

Coming to registrants generally trusting the domain name industry, the survey revealed that trust in the industry generally remains high, particularly in Asia, even as registration restrictions elicit higher levels of trust, whereas positive reputational characteristics, such as business expertise and dependability, contribute to trust in the domain name industry.

On the ‘Many registrants choose alternative identities over domain names’ it was largely seen as a new series of questions added in Phase Two to gauge the use of alternate online identities, such as social media accounts, blogs or other tools.

Therefore, 24 per cent of these respondents said they chose to use a social media account instead of a domain name. While estimated 17 per cent of the respondents said they did not renew a domain in favor of using an alternative method for managing an online identity.

ITRealms recalls that ICANN commissioned the Global Registrant Survey in response to recommendations from the Implementation Advisory Group on Competition, Consumer Choice and Consumer Trust.

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