The Child Online Protection initiative aims to identify risks and vulnerabilities to children in cyberspace, create awareness, develop practical tools to help minimize risk, and share knowledge and experience.

As the new leader of ITU’s COP, Jonathan will work toward creating a safe environment for children while they are on the internet, as well as push for reforms not only in the Africa region but across the globe.

ITU said it believes in the first lady’s ability to spread the cyber security message and push for necessary reforms not only in the Africa region, but across the globe.

A statement released by the union confirmed that Jonathan received her letter of appointment from the Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU, Brahima Sanou who was accompanied by the Chairman of the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (ITU’s executing arm for cyber security), Datuk Amin and ITU’s Regional Director for Africa, Andrew Rugege; at the state house in Abuja on Friday where they discussed issues related to cyber threats and cyber security in the Africa region.

ITU’s union’s Secretary-General, Dr. Hamadoun Touré says: “In this new digital world, we all have a special responsibility to ensure the safety and security of young people in the online world, just as we do offline.”

“It is a great honour for ITU to have the support of Nigeria’s First Lady. Her commitment is a further confirmation of the key role that ITU is playing as a global catalyst and facilitator in international dialogue and cooperation in the area of cyber security,” Touré said.

Sanou, “COP framework has become a crucial means of creating a safe environment for our children, while they are on the net. Both ITU and IMPACT have faith in her ability to spread this message and push for reforms not only in the Africa region but across the globe.”

Aside the COP initiative, ITU and IMPACT are looking at the possibility of setting up a Cybersecurity Regional Centre in Nigeria, which will play an essential role in supporting the expansion of their network globally, by localising cyber security services to meet the unique needs of the region.

The proposed regional centre will become a vital hub of expertise and constitute an important component of the multi-stakeholder network that must be built to support government, industry and citizens so that the full benefits of information and communications technology can be assured for all citizens.

“While acting as a catalyst for greater regional collaboration to address escalating cyber threats, this centre would also help promote Nigeria as an advanced cyber security hub for the region,” Sanou said.

Jonathan on her part commended the ITU-IMPACT on their course to protect innocent children and youths around the world from exposure to various forms of online abuses, such as pornography, radicalisation, trafficking and bullying.

She expressed willingness to partner with ITU-IMPACT and address the safety and security of children and youth around the world who, according to her, are among the top users of the internet globally.

The post Nigeria’s First Lady To Champion Global Child Online Protection appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

According to the commission’s Head of Media and Public Relations, Reuben Muoka, 269 pre-registered SIM cards were either reported to the commission or purchased in compliance to monitoring and enforcement exercises conducted by the Commission, and validated by the offending network.

“In furtherance of the ongoing enforcement of the provisions of the Telephone Subscribers Registration Regulations, 2011, the NCC has imposed fines on four mobile services operators for contravening the provisions on pre-registration of SIM cards in Nigeria. The fines imposed are based on the number of fully activated new SIM cards that were either reported to the commission or purchased in compliance with monitoring and enforcement exercises conducted by the commission, and validated by the offending network,” Muoka said in a statement.

Each pre-registered SIM discovered attracts a penalty of N200,000.

Accordingly, Airtel Nigeria Networks Limited is liable to payment of a fine in the sum of N8.6 m for the availability of 43 pre-registered SIM cards during the exercise.

Emerging Markets Telecommunications Service Limited, EMTS (Etisalat), is liable to pay a fine in the sum N5m for contravening on 25 pre-registered SIM cards, while Globacom Limited is liable to a fine in the sum of N11m on 55 pre-registered SIM cards.

MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, on the other hand, is liable to pay the sum of N29.2m for contravening on 146 pre-registered SIM cards.

Muoka said the service providers were given up to seven days to pay the fines, failure of which N500, 000 would be charged for any additional day that the contravention persisted.

According to him, the commission in the notice of sanction to the service providers signed by the Director, Legal and Regulatory Services, Josephine Amuwa, and Director, Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement, Ubale Maska, said the fines were in exercise of its discretionary powers following prior warnings in April 2012 that network service providers would be liable for breaches by their registration centres carrying out pre-registration of new SIM cards for sales, since it was the providers that activated the new SIM cards.

The post NCC Fines Nigerian GSM Operators Over Pre-Registered Sim appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

The initiative, which is part of the eGhana project, an ambitious plan with backing from the World Bank to create a modern IT infrastructure that can support the country’s sustainable development plans in the years ahead, will help track rapid expansion of cross-border travel Ghana’s 24 million population is experiencing.

Recognizing the need to improve the security and efficiency of its existing procedures, the country’s immigration service has turned to Gemalto to deliver the benefits of a country-wide electronic border management system based on biometric authentication.

Gemalto acts as prime contractor and will take responsibility for integrating the advanced visa and border management solution, including change management, transitional training and maintenance services.

The company will deploy border management systems at Ghana’s main ports of arrival and will implement a fully computerized system for visa and permit applications processing and issuing, with the collaboration of Avalon Biometrics.

The project also covers the set up of an online portal service for visa application, and the implementation of electronic gates at Accra’s Kotoka International Airport, for rapid, convenient and automated border control of arrivals and departures.

This mission-critical solution will streamline processes, reinforce national security and provide the GIS with enhanced border information and intelligence. Aided by biometric data, the authorities will be able to account accurately for everyone entering and leaving the country.

The system will also improve the traveling experience, delivering faster and significantly more convenient border control procedures for visitors.

“To maintain Ghana’s economic development, we need an immigration system that can meet the challenges of rapid growth in international travel,” said Commissioner of Police Dr. Peter A. Wiredu, Director of Ghana Immigration Service. “Gemalto contributed to over 80 successful government programs worldwide and has all the required project management skills, reputation and expertise to deliver the country’s new IT infrastructure”.

“This advanced electronic identity management system is fundamental to the whole eGhana project,” said Ari Bouzbib, Senior Vice President for Government Programs at Gemalto.

“It will put the country’s border control processes on par with the latest, cutting-edge practices worldwide. In addition to helping to transform Ghana, it can serve as a template for modernization across many other countries in Africa”, he added.

The post Gemalto Secures Electronic Visa, Border Management Project In Ghana appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

- Social Media – Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn are typical examples of how engrossed and connected our lives are over the virtual world of cyber space.

- Mobile market – with almost 50 million mobile phones in South Africa, and according to the UN on 12^th October, 2012 – there was 6 billion cell phone subscriptions globally.

The web’s expansive reach accentuates economies of scale that continue to revolutionize the way brands engage customers, driving revenue. This very configuration that constructs the web so attractive to legitimate business attracts extremely technically minded technology abusers making it lucrative for brands to be hijacked and portrayed as powerful brands online.

Along comes IntelliCred in the form of Chief Innovator, Shana Kay of IntelliCred who have just developed a product that helps companies protect their brand, control the integrity of their memberships, grow their business over the web through brand security, provide brand surety, ensure online transactions by means of a visible trust seal displayed on member websites. Further developments behind the technology are on the way that will allow for downstream cascading.

IntelliCred developed the solution to create an environment where associations on the web between companies and members, are controlled, in a secure way with the end result being a visible trust mark, controllable by the user company.

Shana Kay says, “Our product is geared at companies with memberships or partnerships who currently issue a static logo for display on websites”.

Kay says, “To clarify, if the company issues the logos, the members add it to their websites”. If they lose their accreditation, it may remain on the member website indefinitely increasing brand abuse.

Another unique feature within IntelliCred is that a company can control the associations and information it wants to display, at the click of a button.

Companies in the following industries who would benefit from our product include:

- Technology (ICT): companies with partner programs

- Software companies

- Resellers

- Hardware vendors

- Verification

- Business Services

- Verification Boards

- Chambers of Commerce

Amongst others. In fact, any company that has any form of web presence and a membership base is a potential IntelliCred client.

For example, Kay explains, “A good enough programmer can set up an eCommerce site, use it to download some product images and compete with you for customers”. A counterfeit affiliate can also purchase your branded search terminology and compete with you for traffic, by redirecting customers.

Research that guided the evolution of IntelliCred was the online threats to brand revenue and reputation that are too significant to ignore — and growing:

- $140 billion lost to counterfeiting annually

- $100 billion lost to piracy annually

- 28 percent increase in domain squatting in 2010

- 53 billion visits to rogue sites in the last 12 months

- 14 percent of branded paid search traffic is hijacked

As brand threats evolve, so must brand protection strategies. IntelliCred is certainly revolutionising the way businesses can protect their brand strategy.

The post Building Software Solutions For ICT Challenges In Africa appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Goschen said MTN had been ramping up efforts to make MNP a reality for mobile phone users in Nigeria, who are eager to join the country’s most expansive network. MTN Nigeria is arguably the biggest network operator in Nigeria by subscriber base.

“We have made necessary investment in infrastructure and manpower and we are now finalising the process of making this project a reality. We are confident that when the NCC is ready to blow the whistle for the kick off of this project, we will be ready,” he said.

MNP allows mobile telephone users to switch from one network operator to another without losing their numbers.

Goshen disclosed that the ICT Company has already conducted a series of tests on its systems and infrastructure while more tests will be carried out in the days ahead to ensure that the project takes off without any hitch.

“We are excited that customers, who wish to join the network with the most coverage of Nigeria will now be able to do so without worrying about losing their mobile numbers. As you know, we have made far more investment in our network than any other operator in Nigeria has done, with the result that we are today the clear leader with effective network coverage of more than 85 per cent of Nigeria’s land mass and population.”

“We have nearly 100 percent coverage of most major highways in Nigeria and we are gradually moving towards the final laps of a massive, nationwide network modernisation and swap-out exercise that is bound to give the network unequalled capacity and much improved quality of service. We have no doubt in our minds that mobile phone users on other networks in Nigeria will be eager to port into MTN to avail themselves of these and other benefits they can only find on the MTN network,” he said.

The MNP has been scheduled by the country’s telecom regulator, NCC, to commence at the first quarter of 2013 after it had shifted the date from December 2012 to get the process right.

According to NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, telecommunications operators, including MTN Nigeria, Globacom, Airtel and Etisalat have all been given routing numbers in preparation for the commencement by April.

The post MTN Nigeria Ready For Mobile Number Portability appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

NetClarity’s NACwall appliances are designed to harden consumer’s network and provide immediate threat assessment and remediation capabilities. This ensures compliance to the most stringent regulatory guidelines while thwarting malicious attempts to gain access to an individual’s network data.

With the new partnership, ADS SAS’s channel partners will be able to access NetClarity’s internal security solutions that will help companies containing anywhere from 10 to 25,000 devices effectively protect their networks from internal attacks.

ADS SAS’s channel partners now have the opportunity to secure networks from the inside-out with NetClarity’s internal network security product family that provides professional on-site sales and engineering support; lowest initial investment costs for NAC equipment in the industry; secure control of all appliances through a built-in command center that is included with all Enterprise units at no extra charge; ability to deploy internal network security solutions in less than an hour, per site; interoperability on all existing networking environments, devices, and operating systems and the most powerful security model for managing internal risk and regulatory compliance.

Through the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement, the need to control employees’ mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops, has become inevitable and businesses must adopt a solution to ensure their networks are kept secure. NetClarity’s internal security appliances identify and control all of the devices that have access, or are trying to gain access, to the network. The process of allowing and blocking devices onto the network is simplified by simple deployment, agentless and non-inline technology, and automatic vulnerability scanning of devices that are attempting to access the network.

Commenting on the new partnership, ADS SAS President, Jean Kaikati said “We consider NetClarity’s solutions to be most adaptable to the African markets, especially knowing that Africa is one of the fastest growing markets for IT mobile users and the internal network security challenge is increasingly one of the largest to be solved.”

He added that “The African economy as a whole has been growing steadily over the last ten years, accelerating the adoption of new technologies to include more affordable IT solutions. This situation creates challenges for the enterprise in absorbing a myriad of additional IT users. The agentless architecture and ease of implementation of NetClarity’s solutions helps to secure the enterprise networks, and makes NetClarity the ideal NAC solution for our Africa users.’’

“ADS has the unique specificity to cover all the African countries through their local Value Added Resellers (VARs), and they have done it successfully for the past 15 years. NetClarity is now able to increase its footprint and support Africa with local sales and technical knowledge for the benefit of the end user customers,” says NetClarity’s Vice President, International operations, Bernard Girbal.

The post NetClarity, ADS SAS Partner To Distribute NACwall In Africa appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

The Hub operates via an online portal where all members of society, whether in a personal or official capacity, can access information regarding the elections, including news updates, information on candidates and campaigns, and prevalent trends across the country.

There have also been a number of changes to electoral boundaries, seats available, and procedural and regulatory reforms pursuant to the country’s new constitution, which was implemented in 2010; as such the Hub seeks to inform society about the new electoral system.

“We’re empowering voters so that they are not simply watching from afar, but participating in, engaging with and shaping the political process in a democratic way, through platforms like YouTube, Google Maps and Google+,” Ory Okolloh, Google’s policy and government relations manager for Sub-Saharan Africa commented.

Internet based interest concerning the upcoming elections – billed for March 4 – has already been extensive, according to Google. In the company’s Zeitgeist report revealing the most popular search terms in Kenya across 2012, the country’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) topped the list – signalling that members of Kenyan society are increasingly turning to the internet for election-based information.

The Hub’s launch also coincides with the opening of the voter register to the public – the IEBC making the register available for viewing for a two week period. This is to enable registered individuals to verify their details as recorded in the register during the one month long voter registration period which closed on December 18.

Only 14.3 million of Kenya’s 41.6 million population registered to vote in the upcoming elections.

The launch of the Hub is just one of a string of initiatives on the part of Google to assist the country in its election process – having already provided the IEDC with open source technology for the online voter system; and having also provided training to political parties, civil society and the media on the most effective use of online tools to support the elections.

The post Google Launches Kenya Elections Hub appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

Blackberry Messenger 7

Research in Motion (RIM) this year launched the latest version of the Blackberry messaging app, which now allows users to make free voice calls to Blackberry Messenger contacts across the world via a Wi-Fi connection; in an upgrade the original text-based messaging app. Blackberry Messenger 7 also features a split-screen multi-tasking option, for more efficient device use.

Mobile Cockpit

Princeton Telecom this year announced the West African launch of its new app Mobile Cockpit – the business solution set to enable business owners to run professional programmes on their smartphones, as well as providing a range of features such as real estate and job classifieds, and a social network to name but a few of the unique innovations. The app is to be available on Android, Blackberry and iOS smartphones in the first months of 2013.

Afrinolly

This year Nigerian movie app Afrinolly made significant progress, ramping up its user base and announcing its expansion to new devices including iOS and Windows handsets and tablets. The app – which is currently exclusive to MTN Nigeria users – lets users watch trailers for African-produced movies, with a focus on Nigerian “Nollywood” movies, as well as music videos and comedy productions.

Form +

This year 3 students from the University of Lagos became the winners of Google’s Apps Developer Challenge, thanks to their innovation – known as Form +. The application is an easy to use drag-and-drop interface which allows users to produce Curriculum Vitae (CVs), feedback and submission forms, as well as use the app for a host of data-collection purposes.

Tough Jungle

Tough Jungle is the brainchild of Gerald Kibugi, the winner of the inaugural Vodafone App Star Challenge which took place this year taking nominations from across Africa and the Middle East. The Kenyan inspired action adventure gaming app features the culture, history, imagery and wildlife of the East African country with players navigating landmines and dangerous animals across “18 levels of fun”, according to Kibugi.

The post The 5 Most Innovative African Apps of 2012 appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

This emerged at the weekend’s concluding workshop between the SA National Space Agency (Sansa) and local industry and academic experts, held to decide final specifications for South Africa’s next earth observation satellite.

Sansa said as part of SA’s contribution to the African Resource and Environmental Management Constellation (ARMC) of satellites, the local space agency, together with local industry, has held several discussions on the new satellite, ZA-ARMC1, and its associated benefits for South Africa and Africa at large.

Sansa CEO, Dr Sandile Malinga, said the new satellite would provide data to address three African priority areas, namely food security, disaster management, and land use and land-cover mapping.

Sansa said associated benefits included agriculture, climate, environmental impact assessment, farm settlements, housing, urban and regional planning, border monitoring, disaster monitoring and prediction, water management, oil and gas pipeline monitoring, safety, security and health.

Malinga said one of the spatial resolution specifications requested for ZA-ARMC1 would also enable Statistics South Africa to have detailed mapping of dwellings across South Africa for the annual census.

The post South Africa’s New Satellite To Be Superior appeared first on Ventures Africa | .

MTN’s Executive for enterprise business ‚Farhad Khan‚ said the pilot project would be carried out in six of MTN’s Africa market – Cameroon‚ Cote d’Ivoire‚ Ghana‚ Nigeria‚ Uganda and South Africa.

The new cloud service – a Cloud Service Brokerage model centralises access to services‚ where a third party‚ in this case MTN‚ acts as the single point of contact for customers. MTN is the first mobile network operator in Africa to adopt the Cloud Service Brokerage model.

Cloud computing refers to the use of internet to provide delivery of technology services including software and data over the Internet either from a remote location, mainly through data centres, or at the client’s premises. Among other things, the Cloud Service Brokerage model helps to ease administrative burden for companies so instead of dealing with multiple service providers‚ they deal with one.

Speaking on the newly introduced service, Khan said, ”A particular challenge facing small and medium-sized businesses in Africa is the high cost of information technology software and hardware.This includes the licence fees. What MTN Cloud services seeks to do is enable SMEs to minimise these costs‚ and at the same time improve productivity and efficiency.”

Khan explained that the overarching objective of MTN Cloud services was to provide customers in the selected markets with “peace of mind‚ as well as affordable business management tools at reasonable price.”

“We want our enterprise customers to focus on running their businesses knowing that their data is kept safely and securely‚” he said.

MTN Business has however, identified a number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in these markets to test its cloud services and product. The trial period of the cloud services starts on Thursday with selected customers and will end by the end of January next year (2013).

Participating Companies will gain access to a variety of MTN Cloud services which include Office Desktop, an e-mail and collaborative software, Mozypro, a back-up service for the effective management of files and servers, and Dialcom, an on-demand video conferencing offering. MTN will also provide McAfee (a popular anti-virus and anti-spam security software) and Averiware catering for companies’ HR, accounting, finance and sales force automation needs, and Microsoft SharePoint, a staff and cross functional collaborative tool including Microsoft Dynamics CRM, a customer relations management tool.

Users will be able to pay for MTN’s cloud offering using their airtime or MTN Mobile Money. Payment for the services will be in the local currency of the different markets.

MTN’s introduction of cloud computing service into the market is part of its move to provide a wide range of information and communications technology services in addition to its mobile services that it is providing in the continent.

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