General News
Beware! Internet of ‘Threats’ 2015 Loading
As F5 Networks puts it, “Promiscuous sharing of personal information is putting identity data at greater risk than ever”, a series of stunning cyberattacks drew headlines in 2014, and the situation will only worsen in 2015 as hackers use more advanced techniques to infiltrate networks, security researchers have revealed.
McAfee Labs’ 2015 Threats Predictions report sees increased cyber-warfare and espionage, along with new strategies from hackers to hide their tracks and steal sensitive data.
According to the report, “Cyber espionage attacks will continue to increase in frequency.
“Long-term players will become stealthier information gatherers, while newcomers will look for ways to steal money and disrupt their adversaries.”
McAfee said small nations and terror groups will become even more active and will “attack by launching crippling distributed denial of service attacks or using malware that wipes the master boot record to destroy their enemies’ networks.”
At the same time, cybercriminals will use better methods to remain hidden on a victim’s network, to carry out long-term theft of data without being detected, the researchers said.
“In this way, criminals are beginning to look and act more like sophisticated nation-state cyberespionage actors, who watch and wait to gather intelligence,” the report said.
The report also said hackers are looking to target more connected devices, including computers in the farming, manufacturing, and health care sectors.
“The number and variety of devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) family is growing exponentially. In the consumer space, they are now seen in appliances, automobiles, home automation, and even light bulbs,” McAfee said.
Meanwhile, many of the concerns relating to the theft of healthcare data arise from the increasing availability of health-tracking wearables.
In the health care hacks, McAfee said it is already seeing hackers targeting devices such as webcams with weak security and industrial control systems. But it sees health care as an especially worrisome sector.
“With the increasing proliferation of healthcare IoT devices and their use in hospitals, the threat of the loss of information contained on those devices becomes increasingly likely,” the report said.
McAfee noted that other threats will also grow, including “ransomware,” which locks down data and forces the victim to pay a ransom to retrieve it, and attacks on mobile phone operating systems.
In the retail sector, digital payments may cut the risk of credit-card skimmers, but hackers may be able to exploit wireless systems such as Bluetooth and near field communications (NFC) used for mobile payments.
“With consumers now sending payment information over a protocol with known vulnerabilities, it is highly likely that attacks on this infrastructure will emerge in 2015,” the report said.
The report comes in the wake of news about large-scale cyberattacks that have been linked to Russia or China, and a major infiltration of Sony Pictures which stole massive amounts of data.
In retail, Home Depot and others have reported data breaches affecting millions of customers.
“The year 2014 will be remembered as the year of shaken trust,” said Vincent Weafer, senior vice president at Intel-owned McAfee.
“Restoring trust in 2015 will require stronger industry collaboration, new standards for a new threat landscape, and new security postures that shrink time-to-detection.”
Still on health care hack, Keith Bird, Checkpoint’s UK MD cautions that, “As more IP-based appliances are introduced into the workplace and home environments, enabling a better-connected, more efficient world, it also gives criminals a better connected, more efficient network for launching attacks.”
WatchGuard’s Corey Nachreiner, however, took the opposite stance: “Embedded computing devices (IoT or IoE) are everywhere and have security flaws. But today’s cyber-criminals typically don’t just hack for the heck of it; they need motive. There’s not much value to having control of your watch or TV at this point.”
Whether or not fears about the IoT amount to doom-mongering at this point will only be apparent with the benefit of hindsight, but one relatively new tech trend that still represents fertile ground for hackers is mobile devices, particularly given their increased use as payment mechanisms.
Also, Alexander Gostev, Kaspersky Lab’s chief security expert, said that the increasing adoption of Apple Pay “will inevitably attract many cyber-criminals looking to reap the rewards of these transactions.”
United States Government has said that Nigeria is not making significant progress in fiscal transparency, referencing gaps in the country’s budget disclosure, expenditure reporting, public procurement transparency and audit processes.
The assessment is contained in a report by the United States Department of State, which reviewed Nigeria’s fiscal transparency practices in its 2026 fiscal transparency report for countries published on Tuesday.
The report noted that the US government stated that Nigeria made some key fiscal documents available to the public, significant shortcomings remained in the disclosure of budgetary information and the management of public finances.
The report noted that “the government made its enacted budget and end-of-year report widely and easily accessible to the public, including online, but did not publish its executive budget proposal within a reasonable period.”
It also stated that while the Nigerian government had made information concerning the country’s debt obligations publicly available, its budget documents failed to provide a comprehensive picture of government revenues and expenditures.
“The government made information on debt obligations, including major state-owned enterprise debt, publicly available, but budget documents did not provide a substantially complete picture of the government’s revenues and expenditures, or break down expenditures to support executive offices in the budget,” the report stated.
The US government further raised concerns about discrepancies between Nigeria’s approved budget and the actual revenues and expenditures recorded during implementation.
It said, “Actual revenues and expenditures did not reasonably correspond to those in the enacted budget.”
The report also criticised the country’s supreme audit institution, stating that it did not meet international standards of independence and did not publish substantive reports, although it had access to the entire executed budget.
“The supreme audit institution did not meet international standards of independence or publish substantive reports but did have access to the entire executed budget,” it stated.
The assessment, however, acknowledged that Nigeria’s sovereign wealth fund had an adequate legal framework and disclosed information about its funding and the general approach to withdrawals.History
“The sovereign wealth fund had a sound legal framework and disclosed its source of funding and general approach to withdrawals,” the US government said.
The World Bank Group is supporting the expansion of Africa’s digital commerce infrastructure to help small businesses reach new markets, create jobs, and strengthen economic opportunities across the continent.
Through Jumia, Africa’s leading e-commerce platform, the investment is expected to enable approximately 60,000 local annual active sellers to participate more fully in the digital economy, support around 1,800 direct jobs, and create income-generating opportunities for more than 100,000 independent sales agents.
As digital commerce continues to grow across Africa, reliable access to online marketplaces, logistics networks, and digital payments are becoming increasingly important for entrepreneurs and small businesses seeking to expand beyond local markets. Strengthening this infrastructure can help firms increase sales, improve productivity, and connect consumers with a wider range of affordable goods and services.
To support this effort, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, is investing US$25 million in equity in Jumia Technologies AG (Jumia), Africa’s largest public e-commerce platform. The investment will support Jumia’s next phase of growth across its core African markets, strengthening its integrated marketplace and logistics network.
By expanding access to digital commerce tools and services, the investment will help businesses grow, improve price transparency, and contribute to more inclusive and resilient private sector development across Africa.
“The support of the World Bank Group is a milestone for Jumia and for African e-commerce more broadly. It validates both the discipline we have brought to our business in recent years and the tangible impact our platform has on small businesses, jobs, and consumers across our eight markets. With partners like the IFC, we can accelerate the digital commerce infrastructure Africa needs” said Francis Dufay, CEO of Jumia.
“Jumia demonstrates how pan-African e-commerce platforms can expand economic opportunity at scale. Our investment supports the company’s next phase of growth while contributing to create jobs, digitizing supply chains and distributions channels and mobilizing private investment” said Farid Fezoua, Director for Equity, Funds, and Venture Capital at the International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group.
Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has cautioned the public against fake recruitment offers and fraudulent employment letters circulating in the agency’s name.
Eniola Akinkuotu, head of Media and Corporate Communications of the Commission, stated that NUPRC has received reports of counterfeit and AI-generated appointment letters bearing names not known to the regulator.
The Commission also said fraudsters have been extorting money from jobseekers by promising placement within the agency.
NUPRC has reported the incidents to law enforcement and said investigations are underway.
The regulator reiterated that there is no ongoing recruitment exercise and warned members of the public not to make any payments for supposed job offers.
“Whenever the Commission decides to recruit, the process will be conducted strictly in accordance with extant laws and government regulations,” the statement said.
The Commission urged jobseekers to verify any purported offer and to rely only on official NUPRC communications for recruitment information.
The warning follows growing concerns about the misuse of digital tools, including artificial intelligence, to fabricate apparently authentic documents that can deceive the public.
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