Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Connect with us

E-Business

Bring Your Own Device, Don’t Forget Security

Published

on

Scott Totzke
Kindly share this post

Mobile devices have become so seamlessly integrated in our lives that we don’t think twice about completing any kind of transaction across our phones or tablets – making a purchase, depositing money into the bank or checking email for work.

These devices have become our personal assistants in both our work and personal lives, which is why more businesses are embracing bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environments.

According to Forrester, Inc., in 2016, 350 million employees will use smartphones and 200 million will bring their own devices to the workplace.

However, the increase in BYOD represents one of the greatest challenges and opportunities facing organizations and governments today.

Employees benefit from staying connected to work email and data when they are away from the office.

But, to accommodate access from personal mobile devices, many IT departments have relaxed their standards and security to find cost-effective ways to connect disparate devices through a firewall.

In a global survey of executives, 49 percent stated the complexity of securing multiple data sources is a top challenge, while 48 percent reported they lacked knowledge of mobile-access security. In mobile computing, security is most effective when it’s baked in from the ground up, not layered on or strung together.

A patchwork of third-party security products is not adequate in a multi-platform environment, because it leaves the user susceptible to security breaches and interrupts the overall user experience.

The lowered level of security can also become a concern for both the enterprise as IT managers will reduce the level of management capabilities, and the end user as core functionality such as Web browsing and access to app stores is disabled.

In this case, the CIO is forced to marginalize the investment in mobility, making it just about email and calendar updates – missing an opportunity to really transform the business. 

Getting this balance between user experience and security right is the most important success factor for the CIO in today’s BYOD world.

For optimal security, organizations should seek out solutions that are capable of meeting corporate network requirements while concurrently providing three layers of security at the device, server and network level.

 With the right mobile container solution, organizations don’t have to compromise their security requirements to allow employees to carry the devices they choose. But the challenge becomes preventing the secure mobile computing environment from encroaching on the user experience.

The key point of embracing BYOD is offering employees technology that makes them more efficient as they transition from work to personal tasks.

To achieve this, their smartphone or tablet needs to provide the same capabilities as they have on a desktop: attaching emails, browsing the Web, toggling between work/personal environments, using applications, accessing Documents to Go, and much more.

These capabilities help organizations of any size and from any vertical arm their employees with secure devices that meet the demands of their job while keeping total cost of ownership down.

Another important fact to remember about BYOD security solutions is how the market has demonstrated the superiority of management systems and infrastructure that support multiple devices running varied operating systems.

In an environment where mobile technology innovation moves so quickly, organizations need to think about security solutions that provide the flexibility to adopt future technological advances.

For employees, the ultimate value in BYOD is the ability to have both work and personal functionality on a single device that is capable of keeping their data separate and secure. With the right BYOD solution, organizations will be able to strike the right balance between security, user experience and total cost of ownership.

Scott Totzke is responsible for maintaining, consistently, high standard for the security of BlackBerry products and services and helping to shape BlackBerry’s regulatory compliance, lawful access and privacy strategies on global scale.
His organization includes enterprise product management and strategy, security product life cycle management, operations and government sales. He founded and directs the BlackBerry Security teams that have made the transparency of its security solutions BlackBerry’s single biggest differentiator in enterprise and consumer markets. BlackBerry solutions continue to lead the mobile industry in certifications and security approvals, meeting the strict requirements of government and other security conscious organizations.

 

 


Kindly share this post

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

E-Business

NIMC Says NIN Services Back Online

Published

on

Kindly share this post

National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has announced the restoration of its National Identification Number (NIN) verification services nationwide.

NIMC Says NIN Services Back Online

This, according to the commission, follows the completion of a system maintenance exercise.

In a statement issued on Friday, the NIMC confirmed that all previously disrupted services have resumed.

“NIMC wishes to inform the general public that the recent technical maintenance has been completed and all services have been restored,” the statement read.

The NIMC urged Nigerians seeking to enroll for NIN to visit the its official website to locate the nearest enrollment centers.

The agency also encouraged individuals to make use of its self-service portal for tasks such as data modification, including name changes.

To further ease the verification process, the Commission recommended downloading the NIMC NameAuth app (oath.app) from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store for quick and secure NIN authentication.

NIMC expressed appreciation for the public’s patience during the service disruption, which had impacted banks, telecom providers, and government agencies that rely on NIN verification for their operations.

 


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

E-Business

Report Reveals African Organizations Dangerously Overestimating Cyber defences

Published

on

Kindly share this post

Many businesses are overestimating their defence against cyber attacks, which creates a significant human risk blind spot. A new KnowBe4 report exposes a worrying disconnect between what leaders think about their cyber security readiness and what employees experience.

According to the KnowBe4 Africa Human Risk Management Report 2025, based on insights from cyber security decision-makers across 30 African countries, despite high awareness, a critical gap exists in turning that awareness into actual readiness and resilient behaviour.

Key findings from the KnowBe4 Africa Human Risk Management Report 2025:

Confidence vs awareness: While cyber security awareness is high, leaders express uncertainty about their workforce’s ability to act on that awareness. Many feel employees may overestimate their capabilities in recognising, reporting and mitigating threats.

The need for adaptive and personalised security awareness training: Many companies fail to personalise security awareness training to specific roles or risk exposures.

Widespread BYOD usage: A large percentage of employees (between 41% and 80%) use their personal devices for work.

AI policy development is lagging: Many companies (46%) are still in the process of developing policies for using AI tools in the workplace.

Regional variation: Southern Africa trains more, East Africa governs AI better and West/Central Africa sees the most human-related security incidents.

This gap is significant because Africa has become an attractive target to cyber criminals, especially those that launch AI-powered attacks. A LexisNexis Risk Solutions study found 60% of South African organisations have seen an increase in AI-facilitated financial crime – above the 56% global average.

Kehinde Popoola, regional manager and key representative for West and East Africa at Rubrik, said digital transformation is gaining momentum in Africa and companies are more exposed to cyber risk. The Rubrik executive adds that amid an increase in threats, it is crucial that organisations adopt an assumed breach mindset.

The KnowBe4 research shows that cyber security preparedness and the actual structures required to support secure behaviour seem misaligned.

The report highlights that just 10% of cyber security leaders are fully confident that staff would report a phishing attack or other cyber threat, despite rating employee security awareness of cyber threats at four out of five or higher.

There is also a significant perception gap between decision-makers and general employees in Africa regarding security awareness training, with 68% of leaders believing that training is tailored to roles, compared to only a third of employees feeling adequately trained.

KnowBe4 asserts that many organisations only conduct annual or biannual training that is too generic to effectively change behaviour, contributing to uncertainty about its effectiveness.

According to another report, the KnowBe4 African Cybersecurity and Awareness Report 2025, which focuses on end-user based responses, only 43% of African respondents felt confident in their ability to recognise a cyber threat, and just one in three believed their security awareness training was adequately tailored to their role. This comparison suggests the development of a dangerous perception gap in many organisations.

“There’s a disconnect here – between what leaders think is happening and what employees are actually experiencing,” says Anna Collard, SVP content strategy and evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa. “The data shows that without procedural and cultural follow-through, awareness simply doesn’t translate into readiness.”

“The continent’s cyber security posture may be more confident than it is truly resilient,” Collard adds.

 


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

E-Business

Domain of Deception as Attackers Deploy Spyware Under Guise of Legal Threats

Published

on

Kindly share this post

Kaspersky has detected a rapidly escalating malicious campaign that has targeted over 1,100 corporate users since June 2025. The attackers pose as a legal firm and in their emails threaten recipients with lawsuits over alleged domain name patent violations, aiming to deploy malware.

Victims who opened and launched the attached files – that mimicked legal documents – had a Trojan installed on their devices, and the attackers could spy on the content of their screens. Organisations across healthcare, finance, and education sectors have been targeted.

The campaign began with 95 emails on June 11 and has since continued to escalate. Apart from claiming that the recipient’s domain name violates patented combinations of a major brand and threatening litigation, in the email the fake legal bureau also expresses the patent holders’ interest in acquiring the domain and offers getting acquainted with the details of the alleged violations by opening the attached archive with “documents”.

It is worth noting that the attackers, likely to avoid detection, attach an archive that is not password protected, and inside it includes another archive that is password protected and a file containing the password along with it.

After the user entered the archive password and clicked on the alleged legal document inside, a Trojan was installed on the device. The user saw a message displayed that read, “This document cannot be opened on this device. Try opening it on another windows device,” and simultaneously the Tor Browser was covertly downloaded and installed in the background.

Through it, the malware regularly sent snapshots of the user’s screen to the attackers over the Tor network. The malware also autostarts whenever the computer is restarted.

“This campaign is a sophisticated blend of psychological manipulation and technical deception, leveraging fear of legal action to coerce businesses into executing harmful files hidden in attached archives. Its rapid growth since June 11 underscores the urgency for organisations to bolster defenses.

Victims face the risk of losing their private data. Robust email security, employee training, and swift incident reporting are essential to counter this evolving threat,” comments Anna Lazaricheva, spam analyst at Kaspersky.

 


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

Trending