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Google to alert Gmail users of ‘government backed attacks’

By Zakariyya Adaramola, with agency reports

Apple isn’t alone in blocking government-backed security breaches.

Google has also announced that it will let users know if they are been targeted by a state sponsored hacker using a new warning.

The company said it will also be increasing the visibility of other types of Gmail security warnings to try and help people better protect themselves.

“Since 2012, we’ve warned Gmail users when we suspect they’ve been targeted by state-sponsored attackers,” Google said in a blog post.

“These warnings are rare – fewer than 0.1 per cent of users ever receive them – but they are critically important.

“The users that receive these warnings are often activists, journalists, and policy-makers taking bold stands around the world.”

Google will now provide full-page warning with instructions about how these users can stay safe.

Users may see these new warnings instead of, or in addition to, the existing ones, Google added.

The move comes as the world’s leading tech companies backed civil liberties advocates who filed court papers backing Apple in its fight with the FBI over an encrypted iPhone used by an extremist killer.

Google’s padlock alert

If the account the user is sending it to is encrypted, the padlock with show as locked.

This means users can go ahead and send the email without worrying that someone will be able to read it who isn’t supposed to.

If they receive a message that can’t be authenticated, they’ll also see a question mark where they may otherwise see a profile photo or logo.

They can then choose to send the data or not.

NITDA to issue guidelines on software penetration testing standards

From Nahimah Ajikanle Nurudeen, Lagos

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is considering checklists that will form its guidelines as local requirements for software penetration testing standards in the country.

The acting Director General of the agency, Vincent Olatunji gave the hint in Lagos at NITDA Penetration Testing Checklists Standards Workshop.

According to the DG who was represented by the NITDA South West Director, Mr Olayinka Adejuba, the guidelines on software penetration testing standards is important to domesticate software certification in Nigeria.

He said the guidelines on penetration testing standards would also help in software quality assurance.

World Bank: Global internet users hit 3.2bn

By Zakariyya Adaramola

The World Bank says the number of internet users globally has tripled within a decade, from 1billion in 2005 to about 3.2billion at the end of 2015.

This was contained in the World Bank Report for 2016, which was made available, during the presentation of the World Development Report ( WDR 2016 ) on Digital Dividends, by the World Bank, in Abuja last week.

The report also noted that more households in developing nations owned a mobile phone than they have access to electricity or clean water, adding that an estimated 70 per cent of the bottom fifth of the population in developing nations could boast of owning a cell phone.

“This means that businesses, people, and governments are more connected than ever before. The digital revolution has brought immediate private benefits-easier communication and information, greater convenience, free digital products and new forms of leisure. It has also created a profound sense of social connectedness and global community”, the report said.

It further explained that maximising digital dividends would require better understanding of how technology interacted with other factors that were important for development, describing it as “analogue complements”.

Nigerians urged to back JAMB’s IT deployment despite hitches

By Abbas Jimoh

The Africa Arise for Change Network (AACN) has urged Nigerians to show understanding with the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) as it faces some challenges in bringing Nigerian tertiary institutions’ entrance examination to contemporary world standards.

Reacting to protests that followed the recently conducted Computer Based Test (CBT) by JAMB, leader of the network Nkechi Odoma said in Abuja that Nigerians would have reacted differently if they understood the enormity of logistics and technicalities involved in the exercise.

She said her group was not holding brief for the examination body but that it would be sad to see the innovations brought in by JAMB’s Registrar, Professor Dibu Ojerinde rolled back on account of hitches experienced this year.

She said Nigerians however have the right and responsibility to insist that JAMB performs better next time since the examination directly impact the future of youths and the finances of their parents.

Two Nigerian students shine at Ghana’s technology varsity

By Zakariyya Adaramola

Two Nigerians have won the top prize at the 9th graduation congregation of the Accra Institute of Technology (AIT), a leading technology-focus private university in Ghana.

In a statement released by the university and made available to Daily Trust, Mr. Peter Hunnoho Moses, who graduated with a First Class Honours Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Technology was judged the overall best student of the graduation class with a cumulative GPA of 3.99.

The overall best student in the female category went to Ms. Odinaka Abel Favour who graduated with a First Class Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with a cumulative GPA of 3.90.

In his speech to the congregation, which saw the graduation of Bachelor’s degree holders and PhDs, Professor Clement Dzidonu, the President of the university observed that this is a major achievement given that, AIT has the toughest and the highest grading system within the university system in Ghana. “To get an A grade in a subject at AIT you must score above 90 and to get a First Class with a cumulative GPA close to the maximum 4.2, means that a student must consistently get A grades across the board”, Professor Dzidonu noted.

Signal Alliance advocates national consciousness on cyber security

By Zakariyya Adaramola

The Signal Alliance in its national IT security roundtable has advocated for a national consciousness on the security implication of moving the nation online to ensure Nigerian businesses, institutions and individuals going online enjoy the great benefits of a truly online nation.

The roundtable which was sponsored by Cisco is part of the Signal Alliance 2016 Customer Week activities.

Adanma Onuegbu, CEO Signal Alliance said, “While Nigeria is racing to bridge the broad band divide and move its citizens online, there are challenges individuals, companies and governments face as they move online. This roundtable was convened to look at how an online Nigeria can be a safe place for individuals, companies and governments can work and transact safely while online. It was a great session as we brought different segments of the society from technology experts, corporates, service provider, government and users into a room and the brainstorming brought in perspectives that as a nation we must be aware of, as we inevitably move online. We will definitely continue pushing this theme to ensure that Nigeria online is safer than the current state of our national security”.

IXPN becomes West Africa’s regional IXP

From Nahimah Ajikanle Nurudeen, Lagos

The Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) has achieved a major milestone by its elevation to the status of the West African regional Internet Exchange Point.

According to the MD/CEO of IXPN, Muhammed Rudman, the stride was made by successfully vying in the Africa Union Commission’s (AUC) African Internet Exchange System (AXIS) project for a Regional Internet Exchange Point (RIXP) for West Africa.

Until the recent development, the IXPN, a core network infrastructure provider company that allows several Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Telecommunications companies, Carriers, and Content Providers, to exchange traffic among their networks locally, was primarily focused on localizing internet traffic in Nigeria by interconnecting Nigerian networks.

While expounding on the import of its new status, Mr. Rudman said IXPN has moved from national to a regional level.

He said its infrastructure shall be upgraded, in consonance to its new rules to ensure a more resilient operation in the function of connecting all other Internet Exchange Points in the region and to accentuate its capacity to handle the traffic coming thereby.