E-Business

Governance in The Industry 4.0 Epoch

Published

10 years ago

November 3, 2016

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Since Davos in January, I haven’t had a meeting where the 4th Industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) hasn’t been mentioned in one form or the other.

The revolutionary hot topic heralding Industry 4.0 is cloud computing, which comes in theprivate and public cloudforms. What is this wonder called “cloud”? In very simple terms,it is a network of remote servers hosted on the internet and used to store, manage, and process data.

In other words, it is internet virtual based computing that is available on demand and allows you to consume as you need.

The easiest example is what you use every day like your email, productivity services, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools, cloud based data storage for documents etc.

These are integrated into daily life one way or the other and there is no avoiding it. This points to the obvious fact that technology is ubiquitous, itis increasing playing a role in everything we do – shaping growth, and providing the catalyst for governance, thus taking advantage of it is the key to innovation and growth.

Computing has been with us for fifty-one years through four distinct eras; the mainframe era heralded the beginning of computing and was characterized by large machines often housed in warehouses and not unlike datacentres now; the PC era in the 80’s, then eventually in the 90’s, the internet era which made information easily accessible to millions round the world; lastly, we have the cloud and mobile era which we happen to live in now.

This cloud and mobile era comes with new concerns, uncertainty and questions around regulation and laws. History has shown us that technology will always evolve faster than law thus governments around the world struggle understandable to regulate technology and strike a balance between allowing innovation and protecting its citizens from any perceived threats this undiscovered terrain may bring.

In 2011, the U.S. government, announced a national “cloud-first” policy aimed at encouraging rapid implementation of cloud technologies by the federal government. Three years ago, the U.K. launched its own cloud-first initiative. These are great examples but to be honest we expect the US and UK to be early adopters of most technology so this isn’t surprising. Cloud adoption by other governments around the world is still relatively slow.

There are numerous reasons ranging from budget to lack of expertise but as mentioned before, trust is probably the most outstanding issue, the belief that cloud environments create unexplored new risks and raise new security issues.

At Microsoft, we understand these fears which is why we have four guiding principles: Security: We will protect your data, Privacy: You control the privacy of your data i.e. who has access to it and where it resides, Compliance: We comply to the highest standards and certifications, and finally, Transparency i.e. we will let you know what is happening to your data, for example if there is a law enforcement request for your data – you will be informed. In other words, Microsoft runs on trust.

With time, we hope this resistance will begin to ease as more governments recognize that moving to the cloud does not mean losing control of data privacy and security, rather it facilitates governance. A great example of how cloud technology can change lives can be found in Nanyuki, Kenya— a small town in Nairobi. Like a lot of African villages internet connectivity is an issue and sometimes requires using the ‘one’ internet café.

Mawingu Networks (Mawingu means cloud in swahilli) a local startup leverages technology by taking advantage of underutilized television broadcast spectrum popularly known as TV white spaces to provide low-cost internet access to residents of Nanyuki and the surrounding countryside.

In its first three years, Mawingu achieved remarkable success – it connected the county government office, county library, a Red Cross office, and a medical clinic via the internet, thereby improving access to public services and healthcare.

Mawingu also provides unlimited internet access for $3 a month to the community. Farmers use it to compare market prices for their produce, students for their assignments and young entrepreneurs looking for new markets outside of Kenya to grow their businesses.

Another case study for government cloud adoption is the municipality of Hollands Kroon, a town of about 50,000 people in northern Netherlands which was established in 2012.

A few years ago, the city embarked on a mission to become the world’s first city to run 100 percent of its IT services in the cloud. Using cloud technology made it possible for its citizens to engage more fully with the government, and it made interactions much more transparent.

For example, Holland Kroon developed a mobile app for the city with a technology partner. The app allows citizens to use their mobile phones to take pictures of any problems they see in a public space e.g. vandalized buildings or graffiti on a wall—and submit it to the city.

The issue is routed to the proper department for handling and the citizen can track the progress of the issue online from submission all the way through completion. A clear value chain of responsibility for civic duty, trust in the government to proffera solution, accountability and transparency has been enabled by the cloud.

The cloud has many advantages but the question now becomes; with its introduction, will owning and maintaining your own IT infrastructure on your own facility or premise (On-prem) become obsolete? Especially as most developing countries’ government and organizations still use servers on-prem? On the contrary, on- premsolutions will still be a key player in enterprise for years to come especially when dealing with classified data and can always be utilized for private clouds.

Microsoft for example has a private cloud version of the Azure public cloud solution called ‘Azure Pack’ – this solution manages on-prem assets in the same way as it is managed in the public cloud thereby guarantying flexibility in resource allocation and improved economies of scale. It also allows you the option to seamless switch to public cloud.

Analyst firm IDC estimates that global spending on public cloud services will reach $141 billion by 2019 and that by 2020, Clouds will stop being referred to as ‘public’ and ‘private’. It will simply be the way business is done and IT is provisioned. Gartner estimates that commercial cloud spending will reach $200 billion in 2016.

The German government is adapting a ‘high tech’ strategy to prepare for the new world order and is investing 40 billion Euros annually in internet infrastructure. The United States also established the Industrial Internet Consortium in 2014 to accelerate the development, adoption, and wide-spread use of interconnected machines, devices and intelligent analytics.

The Cloud is coming and its benefits are too many to ignore– but governments and nations must be ready to take advantage of it, prepare for it carefully and more importantly not be left behind in industry 4.0.

Rimini Haraya Makama is the Corporate Affairs Director at Microsoft Nigeria.

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E-Business

Cyber Resilience a Critical Priority for Manufacturing Amid Rapid Digitalization – Report Shows

Published

1 day ago

August 13, 2026

Chike Onwuegbuchi

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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.

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E-Business

NDPC Probes UNILAG, Lotus Bank, Hackerbella over Alleged Students’ Data Misuse

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2 days ago

August 12, 2026

Ugo Onwuaso

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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.

NDPC Probes UNILAG, Lotus Bank, Hackerbella over Alleged Students’ Data Misuse

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.

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E-Business

Microsoft to Unveil Next-generation AI Chip in September

Published

3 days ago

August 11, 2026

Chike Onwuegbuchi

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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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