Telecom
Cisco Urges Businesses to Adopt Advanced Methods of Cybersecurity
Cisco has called on businesses to adopt security measures and to take a comprehensive approach across people, process, technology and policy to protect their businesses from hackers and cyber criminals.
The company made this call at an event held at the Cisco Office, Victoria Island, Lagos on Wednesday.
The company said that this became necessary following the findings reported in the recently released Cisco 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report which identified the evolution of ransomware as one of the most significant threat developments over the past year.
The report also highlighted that malware had become more vicious and harder to combat and that attackers are developing more skill in creating malware that can evade traditional sandboxing.
It also revealed that adversaries are increasingly embracing encryption – meant to enhance security – to conceal command-and-control activity and that nearly half of the security risk that organizations face stems from having multiple security vendors and products.
Olakunle Oloruntimehin, General Manager of Cisco Nigeria, Speaking at the event, explained the need for businesses and enterprises to adopt advanced methods of cybersecurity.
He said, “Security is getting more complex and the scope of breaches is expanding.
“Several companies are hit by cyber breaches and attacks every year causing losses in millions of naira and stealing highly classified information.
“It is therefore imperative that any organization that desires to stay safe and minimize risk or loss address cybersecurity at the top, with executive leadership setting the tone and engender a ‘security-first-always-and-everywhere’ culture that flows throughout the organization.”
The Cisco 2018 Security Capabilities Benchmark Study reveals that 94 percent of companies in the Middle East and Africa suffered a breach in the past year and that 34 percent of breaches in resulted in more than half of systems being impacted.
The study also indicated that nearly a quarter of organisations in the region manage more than 21 vendors and cite lack of security personnel as one of the biggest obstacles to security.
Corroborating the importance of robust cybersecurity practices, Tomi Amao, Systems Engineer and Security expert at Cisco, said “Cisco researchers observed a two-fold increase in malicious web traffic volume in roughly over 12-months.
“This alone demonstrates that cyber adversaries continue to learn and evolve.
“The time to raise the bar in cybersecurity is now. That is why at Cisco we take pride in being able to educate and provide businesses with the solutions and best practices required for effective cybersecurity.
“Our threat researchers have a reputation for timely, accurate and innovative work, and our network of talented teams are devoted to driving impactful outcomes for our customers.”
The Cisco 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report, now in its eleventh year, offers security industry data, analysis and insights about attacker behavior over the past year.
The report highlights findings and insights derived from threat intelligence and cybersecurity trends observed over the past 12-18 months and provides recommendations designed to help organizations and users defend against attacks.
Cisco has an integrated and comprehensive portfolio of security technologies to provide advanced threat protection.
Cisco technologies include next generation firewalls, intrusion prevention systems (IPS), secure access systems, security analytics, and malware defense; which work together to deliver effective network security and incident response.
Airtel Nigeria has reaffirmed its long-term commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s digital infrastructure and data access to bridge gaps in connectivity and unlock new opportunities in the country.
The company restated this commitment during a recent high-level inspection tour of the Nxtra Data Centre that is being developed through Nxtra by Airtel Africa at Eko Atlantic, Lagos, the highly rated smart city with ambition to become the Data Centre hub of Nigeria.
The inspection tour was led by the Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Nigeria, Dinesh Balsingh and the Chief Executive Officer of Nxtra by Airtel Africa, Yashnath Issur, with the esteemed chairman of Eko Atlantic Mr. Gabbi Massoud, the CEO of the lead Engineering firm Design Group Limited, Mr. Bayo Odunlami and tech journalists.
The Nxtra Data Centre went through a stringent design validation process and cleared the approval to proceed construction from Eko Atlantic.
Commenting on the developments, Mr Issur said the site visit was a milestone marker and an indication of the company’s commitment to delivering the world-class digital facility on time and ensure that, ultimately, the investments deliver reliable, secure, world-class services for Nigeria and the rest of the continent.
“This Nxtra Data Centre in Lagos represents a critical part of our long-term vision for Nigeria’s digital ecosystem. Today’s visit allows us to review progress, engage our stakeholders, and ensure that our infrastructure investments continue to meet global standards and local needs.
“This data centre will deliver critical high multi megawatt capacity in line with hyperscale customers and enable high density environment. We are putting the infra to bring the cloud to Nigeria,” he said.
The data centre, set to be the largest in Nigeria, is being established to deliver hyperscale and edge facilities across key African markets. With a load of 38 Megawatts, the Lagos facility is expected to serve as a major hub for data hosting, cloud services, content distribution, artificial intelligence, and enterprise solutions in West Africa.
In his remarks, Mr Balsingh reiterated that the data centre was progressing steadily towards the previously announced 2028 go live date.
“Since the announcement of this project, our focus has been on building a world-class facility that supports Africa’s digital transformation agenda. We are encouraged by the progress recorded so far and remain committed to delivering a secure, energy-efficient, and future-ready data centre for Nigeria,” he said.
During the tour, stakeholders were ushered through key sections of the site, including piling zones, where required structural requirements have been tested. Technical teams provided briefings on infrastructure design, security architecture, redundancy systems, and sustainability measures being implemented to ensure reliability and operational excellence.
Strategically located close to major fibre routes and undersea cable landing stations, the Eko Atlantic data centre is designed to enhance Nigeria’s data sovereignty, reduce latency, and improve access to reliable digital services for private and enterprise customers, significantly boosting the country’s data hosting capacity and supporting emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
Mr. Massoud noted that the inspection tour underscored the city’s dedication to infrastructure of global relevance.
“Eko Atlantic as a city with high quality infrastructure will contribute positively to boost the economy of Nigeria and is a perfect place for the development of the digital infrastructure of Nigeria. The Nxtra data centre reflects the calibre of projects we seek to attract — long-term, technology-driven investments built to the highest global standards.
Today’s visit affirms the rigour of the planning and execution process by Nxtra, and the commitment of Eko Atlantic to facilitate and promote the Nigeria’s evolving digital ecosystem,” he said.
Through this ongoing investment, Airtel Nigeria and Nxtra continue to demonstrate their commitment to building infrastructure that enables innovation, supports economic development, and accelerates Nigeria’s digital transformation.
Nxtra by Airtel is developing a network of hyperscale data centres across the continent. Besides Lagos, construction of a new data centre has also commenced in Nairobi, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Google has partnered with top African research institutions to unveil WAXAL, a massive open-access speech dataset aimed at giving over 100 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa a stronger voice in the AI future.
The initiative, announced Monday, targets a key digital gap by supplying high-quality data for 21 local languages, such as Hausa, Yoruba, Luganda, and Acholi. It includes 1,250 hours of transcribed natural speech and more than 20 hours of studio-grade recordings for advanced synthetic voice tech.
Voice AI has exploded globally, yet Africa’s 2,000-plus languages suffer from severe data shortages, sidelining hundreds of millions from native-tongue tech access. WAXAL, three years in the making with Google funding, changes that equation.
“This dataset lays the groundwork for students, researchers, and entrepreneurs to craft tech in their own languages, impacting over 100 million lives,” said Aisha Walcott-Bryantt, Head of Google Research Africa.
She highlighted its potential for African innovators to develop educational tools and voice services that spark economic growth continent-wide.
Community-led from the start, the project involved Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana, Digital Umuganda (Rwanda), and others. These partners own the data outright, pioneering fair AI collaboration models.
Covered languages: Acholi, Akan, Dagaare, Dagbani, Dholuo, Ewe, Fante, Fulani (Fula), Hausa, Igbo, Ikposo (Kposo), Kikuyu, Lingala, Luganda, Malagasy, Masaaba, Nyankole, Rukiga, Shona, Soga (Lusoga), Swahili, Yoruba.
WAXAL goes live today. Details at goo.gle/IntroducingWaxal.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has unveiled its Q4 2025 Network Performance Reports, showcasing nationwide quality boosts fueled by over $1 billion in industry investments and sharper regulatory focus.
NCC
Speaking at the launch, Dr. Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman, NCC, hailed the Ookla-backed data as proof of NCC’s drive for transparent, evidence-driven oversight of Nigeria’s digital growth.
The reports track real-user experiences across cities, villages, highways, and nascent 5G areas, revealing faster median download speeds in both urban and rural spots versus Q3 2025.
Video streaming quality gaps between city and countryside have shrunk, thanks to a beefed-up 4G network—yet 5G rollout lags, upload speeds falter, and coverage holes linger in spots.
Maida said NCC is leaning on operators to fix these via spectrum tweaks, infrastructure drives, and stricter service rules, with 2025’s 2,850 new sites already paying off in broader reach and capacity.
Operators pledge even bigger spends in 2026 to keep the momentum, aiming for top-tier connectivity and economic inclusion for all Nigerians.
“We’ll turn these insights into real gains in service and access,” Maida affirmed, calling for sustained industry teamwork.
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