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Google, Facebook Build “Digital Prisons” in Nigeria, Others with Internet Freebies

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Google and Facebook are at the forefront of a scramble to win over new African Internet users, offering freebies they say give a leg-up to the poor but which critics argue is a plan to lock in customers on a continent of 1 billion people, according to Reuters.

Africa’s Internet penetration will reach 50 percent by 2025 and there are expected to be 360 million smartphones on the continent by then, roughly double the number in the United States currently, Mckinsey Consultants data shows.

Reuters said that Africa had 16 percent Internet penetration and 67 million smartphones in 2013.

This growth is attracting interest from Internet companies such as Google, Facebook and Wikipedia, which are striking deals with service providers such as Vodacom, MTN, Bharti Airtel and Safaricom to offer users free, or ‘zero-rated’ access to their sites and services.

Facebook, through its Internet.org program, offers a stripped-down version of its social network and some other sites for free in what it says is an exercise to “connect the two thirds of the world that doesn’t have Internet access”.

According to Reuters, Google, in partnership with Kenyan mobile phone firm Safaricom, is rolling out its “free zone” in Kenya, where email and the Internet are available with no data charges, providing users stay within Google apps.

Google has said its “free zone” is aimed at a billion people without the Internet in the developing world.

France’s Orange is offering free access to a pared-down version of Wikipedia in some African countries, while South Africa’s Cell-C gives its customers free use of WhatsApp, a messaging service owned by Facebook.

“DIGITAL PRISON”

Critics, however, say big service providers and Internet companies are luring African users into using their services, giving them opportunities for greater advertising revenue.

“It’s like a drug pusher giving you a small amount and saying: ‘If you want more, you have to come and buy it’,” Africa Internet access specialist Mike Jensen said.

Giving Africans free access to some Internet sites may also stunt innovation and limit the opportunities for African entrepreneurs, making online technology another industry on the continent dominated by big foreign companies.

In Nigeria, 9 percent of Facebook users say they don’t use the Internet, mobile service survey site Geopoll says.

“You are giving people the idea that they are connected to this free open world of the Internet but actually they are being locked up in a corporate digital prison,” Niels ten Oever, head of digital at rights group Article 19, told Reuters.

“Where will the African Mark Zuckerberg come from when they have no chance to compete?”

REGULATION

There are also concerns that regulators in Africa lack the capacity to track how telecoms companies allocate bandwidth. Telecoms firms sometimes limit Internet speeds for some content, known as “throttling”.

Telecoms operators say self-regulating bandwidth usage is important to ensure heavy data users, such as people who download movies, don’t clog up bandwidth for lower Internet users.

The United States passed rules in February to ensure greater “net neutrality”, intended to make sure all content managed by service providers in the U.S. is treated equally on the Internet, despite opposition from telecoms companies.

But African countries don’t have tough rules on “net neutrality”, meaning some services could be given faster access than others, which some activists say could give bigger companies an advantage over new market entrants.

The 24 sub-Saharan African countries tracked by Internet monitoring site WebIndex have “evidence of discrimination” in the allocation of bandwidth and have “no effective law and regulations” on Internet freedom.

“There is little transparency into the Internet operators’ deals so it is hard to see where conflict of interests might be,” Jensen said. “You’re left just having to trust them.”

Despite concerns about limited regulation and an uneven playing field, many experts argue that any improvement in Internet access in Africa should be welcomed, given it could improve education, grow businesses and alleviate poverty.

High speed broadband costs up to 100 percent of average per capita income in Africa, compared to less than 1 percent in developed countries, according to WebIndex.

“Would you tell someone who is hungry: ‘Don’t eat that greasy burger, it’s bad for you. Wait for something healthy?'” said Stephen Song, an Internet researcher for the Network Startup Resource Center.

“I’m not a fan of ‘zero-rated’ services but there is an argument to say: ‘something is better than nothing’.”


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E-Business

Kaspersky Brings AI-driven Context to Cloud Workload Security

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Kaspersky has updated its Cloud Workload Security (CWS) offering, introducing AI-powered workload analysis, enhanced integrations and performance optimisations designed to help organisations better secure complex cloud and hybrid environments.

The latest update brings integration with OpenAI API in the Kaspersky Container Security (KCS) part of the offering, also resulting in the creation of a new Advanced Pro license within the product.

The new capability provides contextual descriptions of detected vulnerabilities and potential risks, helping accelerate investigations, reduce knowledge gaps and support faster decision-making.

Designed for modern DevOps and hybrid cloud environments, Kaspersky CWS provides centralised visibility across workloads, Kubernetes clusters and cloud platforms, while supporting runtime protection, shift-left security practices and regulatory compliance requirements.

AI-driven visibility and improved workload protection

The update allows organisations to enrich container image scanning results with automated explanations and risk context generated by third-party large language models integrated via OpenAI API. By transforming technical scan data into actionable insights, the feature helps teams prioritise remediation and streamline security operations.

Additional improvements include single sign-on (SSO) integration and multi-domain Active Directory support, enabling more seamless deployment across distributed enterprise environments.

To optimise performance, Kaspersky CWS now also enhances image scanning efficiency by skipping oversized images when needed and avoiding rescans of identical images within a predefined timeframe. Expanded security policy capabilities and UX/UI updates further simplify workload protection and policy management.

Enhanced protection across cloud environments

The new release also updates Light Agent components, now leveraging the latest versions of Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Windows (version 12.12) and Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Linux (version 12.4) to improve overall security and integration capabilities.

“As AI adoption accelerates across industries, organisations are increasingly relying on containerised environments – placing additional pressure on security teams.

“To help ease this burden, we introduced AI integration within Kaspersky Cloud Workload Security that enables security professionals, including those just beginning their journey in container security, to make faster decisions and gain deeper insight into potential risks and vulnerabilities,” comments Anton Rusakov-Rudenko, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Cloud & Network Security at Kaspersky.

“Combined with performance optimisations and expanded integration capabilities, the solution helps organisations to protect cloud environments more efficiently while maintaining operational resilience.”

 


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SARS Denies Being Hacked by Nullsec Nigeria, Hacker Group

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South African Revenue Service (SARS) has dismissed claims that its systems were breached, following allegations by a hacker group that it had compromised the tax authority’s digital infrastructure.

SARS Denies Being Hacked by Nullsec Nigeria, Hacker Group

The controversy emerged after Nullsec Nigeria, a threat actor  also known as Anonymous Nigeria, claimed to have breached both SARS and the State Information Technology Agency (SITA).

The hacktivist group allegedly posted links to download what it claimed was compromised data on the Breached hacker forum on Saturday, 23 May 2026, sparking concerns over a possible cyberattack targeting government systems.

However, SARS said it had conducted a thorough investigation into the claims and found no evidence that its systems had been compromised.

“SARS continuously monitors its systems for any suspicious activity and has conducted a thorough investigation in response to these reports. These claims are false and unsubstantiated,” the revenue service said in a statement.

“At this stage, there is no evidence that SARS’s systems have been compromised. SARS wishes to reassure the public regarding the integrity of its systems.”

The tax authority stressed that safeguarding taxpayer information remains one of its core responsibilities and forms part of its broader efforts to maintain public confidence in South Africa’s tax administration system.

SARS said the “protection of taxpayer information and the security of its digital platforms” is treated as “sacrosanct”.

The agency also urged South Africans to avoid sharing unverified claims and instead rely on official channels for accurate information.

“Members of the public are urged to verify information before sharing and not to circulate unverified claims or rely on information from unofficial sources,” SARS said.

At the same time, SARS warned taxpayers to remain vigilant against phishing scams and fraudulent messages falsely claiming to be from the tax authority.

For guidance on identifying scams and phishing attempts, SARS directed the public to its official online resource page: SARS scams and phishing guidance

SARS said it would continue monitoring its digital environment and communicate any developments through official platforms should the need arise.


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Pope Calls for ‘Disarming’ of AI, Warns of “New Forms of Slavery”

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Pope Leo XIV called Monday for the “disarming” of artificial intelligence in his long-awaited manifesto on the rapidly developing technology, and warned of “new forms of slavery” behind its rise.

Pope Calls for ‘Disarming’ of AI, Warns of “New Forms of Slavery”

Leo, warned against “a race for ever more powerful algorithms and larger datasets, driven by the desire to secure geopolitical or commercial dominance”.

He presented his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity) in person at the Vatican, alongside AI experts including Christopher Olah, co-founder of US giant Anthropic.

Anthropic is embroiled in a legal battle with the US military after opposing the use of its technology for lethal autonomous warfare and mass surveillance.

At the presentation, Olah said AI companies operate “inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing”.

He welcomed input from outside actors like the Catholic Church, to “push events in a better direction” saying that “the questions raised by AI are bigger than the AI research community”.

In the encyclical, Leo also sounded the alarm over AI-directed weaponry, saying it was “not permissible to entrust lethal” decisions to tech.

Leo has repeatedly clashed with the White House over the Iran war and its use of religion to justify conflict.

The “just war” theory — espoused recently by the Trump administration — was “outdated”, Leo wrote, adding that “no algorithm can make war morally acceptable”.

AI could be worth up to $4.8 trillion by 2033, a 25-fold increase in a decade, while concentrating its profits in the hands of a limited few, according to the United Nations.

“Disarming AI means freeing it from the mentality of ‘armed’ competition,” the pope wrote.

“To disarm does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity,” Leo wrote.

AI should be “human-friendly”, accessible to all, and open to discussion and debate, he added.

The head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics has made the hot-button issue a cornerstone of his papacy by dedicating to it his first encyclical — a document that lays the basis for Church teaching and longer-term debate.

The manifesto references a range of cultural giants, from Greek philosopher Plato to Beethoven and his Ninth Symphony, even citing a character from JRR Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”.

“Magnifica Humanitas” was signed on May 15, the 135th anniversary of an 1891 encyclical by Leo XIII, which laid the foundations of the Church’s social doctrine during the Industrial Revolution.

 

 


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