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Cisco Reveals keys to Solve Nigeria’s IT Skills Dilemmas

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Cisco stressed that governments urgently need to deploy policy and training programmes to help solve the world’s fastest-growing gap in networking professionals.

The global shortage of skilled IP networking professionals will be at least 1.2 million people in 2015, according to INSEAD Business School’s Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2014 co-authored by Cisco.

Specifically looking at Nigeria, Cisco estimates that 30 000 to 70 000 skilled information technology workers are needed, however tertiary institutions are not producing enough ICT graduates to meet this demand.

According to the latest Cisco Visual Networking Index, Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast: 2014-2019 forecast, mobile data traffic is expected to grow 11-fold over the next five years in Nigeria, which is a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 63 percent – two times faster than expected fixed IP traffic growth.

This highlights that connectivity is accelerating at a fast pace in the country therefore creating a growing need for skilled ICT professionals.

The lack of young ICT professionals is not limited to just Nigeria – increased connectivity, the Internet of Everything, rising digitisation of all business activity, globalisation of trade and travel, and economic growth globally has created the same problem in a number of countries globally.

“Specific programmes and targeted policies are needed to expand the total pool of qualified people in Nigeria, as well as globally. More effort is particularly needed to expand the pool of qualified networking talent by: increasing the number of new Networking employees (graduates); encouraging and enabling mid-career professionals to transition to ICT and Networking; and increasing a country’s total talent by encouraging immigration,” said Mr. Dare Ogunlade, GM, Cisco, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The policies and programmes created to achieve these results should: integrate more technology training into educational curriculum. Expand efforts to increase the number of trained ICT professionals from universities, vocational programmes and technical training centres, particularly by integrating elements of computer science (CS) and IP networking into general education curricula at the primary and secondary levels and increase mentorship opportunities. Mentoring students provides opportunities to experience and learn about careers in technology related fields.

Others are reduce limits on the number of temporary and immigrant visas for skilled workers. Current immigration policies directly impact the immediate supply of skilled networking employees and implement successful technical training programmes, particularly through public private partnerships.

Tailored training programmes can accelerate the number of skilled networking employees that enter the global workforce.

Cisco’s own Networking Academy Program prepares students for entry-level ICT jobs through the PPP model. To date, it has trained over five million students globally and over 47 000 in Nigeria.

“The ongoing adoption of more powerful mobile devices and wider deployments of emerging M2M applications, combined with broader access to faster wireless networks, will be key contributors to significant mobile traffic growth in Nigeria and the rest of the world in the coming years. Whilst this phenomenal growth highlights the presence of the IP networking gap, with dedicated public policy, specific training programmes, and public involvement on the part of governments, citizens and private enterprise, we can solve the talent gap,” Ogunlade concluded.

 


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Attackers Target Employees with Fake HR Updates

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Kaspersky has identified an advanced phishing campaign targeting employees with personalised emails and attached documents disguised as HR policy updates.

This campaign marks a significant escalation in phishing tactics, with attackers tailoring not only the email body, but also the attachments by addressing individual recipients, showcasing an unprecedented level of customisation. The goal was to lure the victim into entering their corporate email credentials.

The attackers likely prepared by parsing employee names to make the campaign targeted and more convincing.

The emails feature a deceptive body: a fraudulent “verified sender” badge to build trust, the recipient’s name, and an invitation to open the attached file to review remote work protocols, benefits administration and security standards. However, the whole email body is in reality just an image with no real text in it; this is done to bypass email filters.

The attached document, posing as an updated “Employee Handbook,” does not contain any actual guidelines – only a title page, a table of contents with the items that have supposedly been changed highlighted in red, a page with a QR code, supposedly for going to the full document and common instructions on how to read QR codes using a phone. The document features the victim’s name multiple times to convince that this document was created specifically for them.

If the victim scans the QR code and follows the link, they land on a fraudulent page where they are asked to enter their corporate credentials, which is what the attackers are hunting for.

“This campaign demonstrates a new level of sophistication in phishing attacks, and we may be seeing a new mailing automation mechanism that generates a separate attached document and a separate image for the email body for each recipient.

“This tactic allows to scale the attack and at the same time possibly evade traditional defenses. Organisations must prioritise advanced security measures and employee education to stay ahead of these threats,” comments Roman Dedenok, Anti-Spam Expert at Kaspersky.

 


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Temu Joins INTA to Combat Counterfeits and Elevate IP Standards Worldwide

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Temu, the global online marketplace, has joined the International Trademark Association (INTA) as a corporate member and serves on its Anti-Counterfeiting Committee.

INTA is a global association that brings together more than 6,700 organizations, representing over 37,000 trademark professionals and brand owners across 181 countries. By joining INTA, Temu deepens its commitment to building a trusted online marketplace and advancing global IP protection through broader, cross-industry collaboration.

“INTA welcomes TEMU’s willingness to engage in anticounterfeiting initiatives, including in the Association’s annual Anticounterfeiting Workshop and Online Takedown Certificate Program which serve to share best practices and connect stakeholders,” said Alastair Gray, Director of Anti-Counterfeiting, INTA. “Constructive collaboration with these efforts can contribute to the protection of intellectual property rights for INTA members and support the removal of counterfeit products from the platform which ultimately protects consumers.”

At the 2025 INTA Annual Meeting held in San Diego in May, Temu participated in the Anti-Counterfeiting Committee Roundtable, serving as a moderator to facilitate discussions among brand owners, online platforms, and government officials on emerging technologies, best practices for collaboration, and strategies to strengthen global anti-counterfeiting efforts.

“Joining INTA and serving on its Anti-Counterfeiting Committee reflects Temu’s ongoing commitment to ensuring a trustworthy online shopping experience,” said a Temu spokesperson. “We value collaboration with industry peers and stakeholders and are dedicated to advancing collective efforts in intellectual property protection.”

Temu also participates in INTA-led online workshops, including the Online Platform Notice and Takedown Certification Program, which outlines the latest procedures and best practices used by e-commerce platforms and social media companies. These workshops aim to enhance the quality and accuracy of rights-holder notices, promoting more effective takedown processes and content moderation.

Since launching in 2022, Temu has made significant investments in IP enforcement. Its measures include comprehensive seller vetting and compliance training, 24/7 algorithmic monitoring with manual review, a dedicated IP protection portal and brand registry to streamline takedown submissions, and an internal enforcement team that handles claims with speed and accuracy.


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Huawei Unveils AI Computing System to Challenge Nvidia’s Flagship Product

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China’s Huawei Technologies unveiled an AI computing system on Saturday that an industry expert said rivals Nvidia’s most advanced product, as the company aims to expand its footprint in the country’s booming AI sector.

Huawei Unveils AI Computing System to Challenge Nvidia’s Flagship Product

The CloudMatrix 384 system made its public debut at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), a three-day event in Shanghai, attracting a large crowd to Huawei’s booth with its showcase of cutting-edge AI innovations.

The system has attracted significant interest from the global AI community since Huawei (HWT.UL) first introduced it in April. Industry analysts see it as a direct challenger to Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72, the most advanced system-level offering currently available from the U.S. chipmaker.

In an April article, Dylan Patel, founder of semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis, stated that Huawei now possesses AI system capabilities that could surpass those of Nvidia.

Huawei staff at its WAIC booth declined to comment when asked to introduce the CloudMatrix 384 system.

A spokesperson for Huawei did not respond to questions.

Huawei has become widely regarded as China’s most promising domestic supplier of chips essential for AI development, even though the company faces U.S. export restrictions.

Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang told Bloomberg in May that Huawei had been “moving quite fast” and named the CloudMatrix as an example.

The CloudMatrix 384 system features 384 of Huawei’s latest 910C chips and, according to SemiAnalysis, surpasses Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 in certain performance metrics, despite the latter using 72 B200 chips.

SemiAnalysis attributes this performance advantage to Huawei’s strong system design, which offsets the lower power of individual chips by leveraging a greater number of them and incorporating system-level innovations.

Huawei describes the system as utilizing a “supernode” architecture that enables ultra-high-speed interconnectivity between chips.

In June, Zhang Pingan, CEO, Huawei Cloud confirmed that the CloudMatrix 384 was already operational on Huawei’s cloud platform.


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