E-Business
Ericsson Envisions 50Bn Networked Connections Globally by 2020
Ericsson has envisioned a Networked Society in which there would be 50 billion connections globally by 2020. Ericsson is leading the way in enabling the Networked Society in Africa as the world is experiencing a shift that rivals the magnitude of the journey into the industrial society as the world moves from the information society to the Networked Society, where the primary concern is not having access to information, but what benefit people get out of it. To this end, the company begun the first of a series of road shows in Lagos and will host five of its kind across sub-Saharan Africa between March and September this year to create the environment to imagine and understand the possibilities of a Networked Society in Africa. In this Networked Society people, knowledge and information are to be connected for continuous transformation driven by collaboration and creativity. These connections would be between mobile handsets, from machine to machine and between handsets and other devices. Shiletsi Makhofane, head of Marketing and Strategy, Ericsson sub-Saharan Africa said: “Africa will be part of this Networked Society and Ericsson is already playing a role in driving this reality. For example in education we introduced the Connect to Learn project. We are using mobile technology to help lost families meet again through Refugees United. In addition we are enabling Smart Cities by connecting all municipal offices in the City of Johannesburg to improve the performance and efficiency of local government and connecting government to the people.” The focus areas for the three-day event are Broadband, Smart Cities and Smart Villages, Network Efficiencies and Enterprise and Vertical Segment. The purpose of the sessions is to discuss the possibilities offered by the Networked Society. The road show will be attended by a cross sectional audience of senior management from local and regional operators, and representatives from local, regional and national government, the private sector and media. An Ericsson-commissioned study by Arthur D. Little found that for every 10 percentage point increase in broadband penetration, GDP grows about 1 percent. In addition, for every 1000 additional broadband users, roughly 80 new jobs are created. In this context Ericsson sees broadband as a key enabler of a 21st century infrastructure that will transform the way we live, including how we access virtually every product and service. A digital economy will emerge out of this infrastructure that will stimulate innovation across all sectors of society. Gary Dewing, country manager, Ericsson Nigeria said: “There is little doubt that Africa is taking the first steps towards a Networked Society and we want to use this road show to highlight that Ericsson is aware of its role in Africa and show our current and potential customers how we can help them transform society. This is not a farfetched concept. We are already seeing the results of Ericsson’s vision of a Networked Society in areas such as animal tracking, healthcare and logistics.” Participants at the Networked Society road show will hear Ericsson’s thoughts on existing and new industries including Smart Cities, Utilities, TV and Public Safety. Smart City workshops will be held for operators, city and government officials as well as representatives from verticals such as power utilities. Sessions explaining Ericsson’s vision and highlighting solutions around LTE, green power, cloud computing and mobile broadband all form part of the road show. Makhofane continues: “Unique opportunities exist in Africa for mobile applications that do not exist in developed markets. Already more people in sub-Saharan Africa connect to Internet using a mobile device than a fixed connection. Future access to broadband Internet in this region will mostly be via a wireless device.”
E-Business
Cyber Resilience a Critical Priority for Manufacturing Amid Rapid Digitalization – Report Shows
As 60% of manufacturers race toward full digitalisation, cyber risk is increasingly manifesting as a business risk, according to a new global report by Kaspersky and VDC Strategy.
This means cybersecurity is not merely a compliance function, it is a cornerstone of production assurance, safeguarding uptime, quality, and operational continuity.
Manufacturers are modernising to deliver safer, more consistent and more cost-effective production and digitalization is moving fast: just 9% of organisations describe themselves as fully digital today, but 60% expect to get there within two years, according to the joint report by Kaspersky and VDC, titled ‘Cyber Resilience, Built for Manufacturing’.
That shift links shop-floor equipment, production lines and site operations to platforms such as Manufacturing execution systems (MES), Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and historians, turning many plants into cyber-physical systems (CPS), where a digital disruption doesn’t stay digital. It can slow production lines, quarantine work in progress, invalidate traceability records, or halt production outright.
What’s driving manufacturing digitalization?
Manufacturers are digitising for measurable operational gains, not novelty. Survey respondents identified the primary drivers of their digital transformation strategy as:
- Improving production output or efficiency (24%)
- Reducing operational or production expenses (15%)
- Enabling new strategic opportunities (14%)
- Improving cyber resilience (13%)
The same connected systems that unlock these gains, including MES, IIoT sensors, automated material handling, remote engineering access, also become the systems that determine whether production can be trusted to keep running.
Cyber risk is now a business risk
Cyber risk has evolved from a mere IT concern to a direct threat to revenue generation, as environments transform into cyber-physical systems. In these integrated settings, digital disruptions like malware no longer just affect data, they can cause unsafe operations, scrapped batches, and halted production on the plant floor. This shift highlights the urgent need to treat cybersecurity as a key part of operational resilience.
According to the report, nearly 60% of manufacturing organisations estimate that cyber incidents cause damages exceeding $1 million per event, with an average disruption of 15.3 hours. The most significant losses often result from production halts, missed delivery commitments, and penalties, rather than just forensic costs.
In this context, downtime links cybersecurity risks to overall business performance. Cyber incidents can reduce Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), strain staffing, and disrupt supply chains. Recovery involves more than system restore, it requires re-establishing confidence in process parameters, quality records, and traceability before resuming operations.
Mature cybersecurity programs now incorporate OT security into governance, focusing on metrics valued by production leaders such as time to restore, backup confidence, legacy asset coverage, and safe degraded operation. This alignment ensures cybersecurity supports continuous production and resilience, not just IT compliance.
However, challenges remain due to split ownership. While 59% of organisations’ IT departments manage security policies, these often overlook plant realities. Managing many security tools (44%) and OT patching issues (38%) show that cybersecurity must be embedded into daily routines of production, engineering, and quality teams. Only through such integration can cybersecurity effectively enhance operational reliability and defend against evolving threats.
“As manufacturing environments become increasingly interconnected, cybersecurity shifts focus from merely adding protective layers to ensuring the availability, resilience, and integrity of production processes. The goal is to minimise operational impact and speed up recovery, rather than solely preventing intrusions.
“Kaspersky offers a unified ecosystem that integrates IT, OT, and IIoT security, empowering manufacturers to pursue digital transformation securely. This strategy helps maintain operational continuity and reduces long-term cybersecurity costs,” comments Andrey Strelkov, Head of Industrial Cybersecurity Product Line at Kaspersky.
To implement this strategy, manufacturing companies can leverage solutions from the Kaspersky OT Cybersecurity Ecosystem, centered around Kaspersky Industrial CyberSecurity (KICS), a native Extended Detection and Response platform designed for critical infrastructure protection. KICS enables centralised detection and response to complex attacks across the entire industrial network, ensuring comprehensive visibility and security.
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has commenced a forensic investigation into the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Lotus Bank and Hackerbella Ltd over alleged violations of data protection laws involving students’ personal information.
The investigation follows public complaints alleging that students’ personal data were used to open bank accounts without a lawful basis.
Dr Vincent Olatunji, national commissioner and chief executive officer of the NDPC, directed the investigation team to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the circumstances surrounding the collection, processing, use and disclosure of the affected students’ personal data.
The investigation will also determine the respective roles and responsibilities of UNILAG, Lotus Bank and Hackerbella in the alleged processing of the data.
According to the Commission, the investigation will assess the data protection compliance obligations of the parties under the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023 (NDP Act), as well as potential risks posed to the rights and freedoms of the affected data subjects.
The NDPC said the probe would cover several areas, including Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs), the lawfulness and transparency of credit scoring or profiling activities, and the use of automated decision-making systems.
It will also examine the adequacy of privacy notices, data-sharing arrangements, lawful bases for processing, data minimisation and purpose limitation.
Other areas include data retention policies and the adequacy of technical and organisational measures put in place to safeguard the rights and personal data of affected students.
The Commission reiterated that institutions entrusted with the personal data of students, staff and other members of their communities have a heightened responsibility to ensure that such information is processed lawfully, fairly, transparently and securely.
The NDPC therefore warned educational institutions that are yet to comply with its existing data protection compliance directives to take immediate steps to achieve compliance.
The Commission said it would continue to exercise its regulatory mandate to protect the privacy rights of Nigerians and ensure that organisations processing personal data comply with the provisions of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023.
Microsoft is planning to unveil its new Maia 300 AI chip this fall, potentially as soon as next month, The Information reported on Monday, citing people with direct knowledge of the plans.
The company introduced its Maia AI chip in November 2023 but has lagged rivals such as Alphabet and Amazon in scaling up its in-house chip efforts as it seeks to reduce its reliance on Nvidia’s costly processors.
Google began recognizing revenue from direct sales of its custom AI chips, called Tensor Processing Units, in the quarter ended June, while Amazon has also seen growing adoption of its processors, including its Trainium chips.
Microsoft has been in talks with chipmaker TSMC to secure manufacturing capacity for more than 300,000 units of the chip for delivery in 2027, according to the report. It is also looking to significantly ramp up production and persuade major cloud customers such as Anthropic to adopt the chip.
Microsoft ultimately aims to secure capacity for more than 1 million Maia 300 chips, though component supplies and ongoing capacity negotiations with TSMC could constrain its plans, according to the report.
It unveiled its second-generation Maia 200 in January, built by TSMC using 3-nanometer technology.
Microsoft packed the chip with a significant amount of SRAM, a type of memory that can provide speed advantages for AI systems handling large numbers of user requests.
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