E-Business
IBM Promotes Safe & Secured Computing, Releases Advanced Security Software Application
The era of complex, disaster-prone computing might just be over, or perhaps, around the corner. These days, computing is as much about people (the soft issues) as it is about devices (hard issues).
Our personal habits, our income levels and resources, our education of certain things (or ignorance, as the case may be), our work place practices, our social norms and the way we live and engage with the larger society generally all help to define how we make use of the available ‘software’ and ‘hardware’ tools in the environment.
The changing global demographic is also a key factor. In a few years, “Generation Y” (those born beginning in the mid-1970s) will make up half of the workforce worldwide.
This population is marked by an increased familiarity and reliance on communications, media and digital technologies — they came of age in a connected world.
In a measured response to this trend, scientists and inventors at IBM began to actively promote the concept of BYOD (bring your own device) many years ago.
BYOD has enormous implications on work place productivity, how companies support alternate work schedules and preferences and even who they are able to recruit.
In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous economy, the dynamic of how people live and work is also changing, albeit slowly. Work used to be a “place”.
Now, work can be any place and everywhere, and the tools to enable these new work practices are increasingly available.
New technology is helping to attenuate some of the key infrastructure issues and challenges facing the country, and companies operating in Nigeria will have to dump their analogue era habits and procedures to embrace this emergent work-life ethic if they are desirous of making full use of employee skills and capabilities.
In this era of social and business networks, connectivity and content creation and consumption is only a click or two away.
The integrity of electronic or digital information and raw data, encompassing data generation, protection and security, is increasingly a major headache for device makers and users alike.
As data consumption habits change – with more and more individuals developing content on mobile devices, and communicating within local and international boundaries with these devices – the question, “how safe and secure is your software environment / infrastructure?” becomes very pertinent.
According to Gartner, a global technology research consultancy, more than 45.6 billion mobile applications were downloaded in 2012.
As the rate of application use on mobile devices increases, securing smartphones and other endpoint devices is a top priority for organizations and Chief Information Security Officers.
The proliferation of consumer and enterprise mobile applications also adds to the dilemma. Organizations cannot always control or restrict the applications installed on user devices, so they must test how applications send and save data.
One of the technology firms at the forefront of solving and embracing this new way of work is IBM, the 101 year old company based in Armonk, New York, USA. IBM recently announced the release of its new security software – the IBM AppScan Source 8.7 for iOS – that can automatically identify where data enters and leaves a mobile application, helping to prevent mobile data leakage.
This new software release builds on IBM’s MobileFirst initiative and expands the company’s strategy to provide organizations with a mobile platform that spans application development, integration, security and management.
Consequently, companies and internet software developers globally can better protect each mobile application release in the face of constant updates. IBM previously announced IBM AppScan for applications running on the Android platform.
Taiwo Otiti, IBM’s country general manager for West Africa said the IBM AppScan Source 8.7 for iOS will be available in markets globally as from March 25..
Otiti acknowledged that for many companies, the pace of mobile application releases and updates can be overwhelming as they try to maintain strict security guidelines and policies. “IBM AppScan Source 8.7 for iOS provides the ability to improve security quality without sacrificing time-to-market of mobile application projects.”
As always with IBM, business-friendly innovations like this new security software often begin life incubating as prototypes and projects in any or several of IBM’s 12 labs located around the world. IBM products therefore undergo rigorous design, development and testing cycles by IBMers beginning with its scientists, engineers, staff and business partners.
This culture of scientific rigor and excellence is one of the reasons IBM has remained at the apex of innovation for decades.
IBM developed its own mobile apps store — WhirlWind — created exclusively for IBMers, many years ago.
WhirlWind currently supports Apple iOS, Google Android and Blackberry devices. It is designed to help employees unleash the power and potential of their smartphones as a productivity tool. The store currently offers more than 500 apps and recently passed the 40,000 download mark.
At the moment, some 120,000 employees access the IBM network through mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops).
Of those, 80,000 are using devices they have purchased on their own, while the remaining 40,000 employees are using company issued devices.
IBM is always mindful of security and how it needs to stay ahead of malware and other threats to its data and that of its clients.
The company has tools in place to protect its data from being compromised, and is implementing other tools on an ongoing basis, realizing that this will always be a moving target.
Organizations need to be able to seize the business potential that mobility promises, said Caleb Barlow, IBM’s director of Application, Data and Mobile Security. He therefore counsels firms to incorporate security into their infrastructure and solutions from the design, development and testing phases rather than leaving security to become an afterthought.
Employees play a significant role in security by employing common sense practices and avoiding risky sites or untrusted networks. IBM has outlined advised practices in its “Secure Computing Guidelines,” similar to what it has in place for social computing and business conduct in general.
The bottom line is IBM will not compromise it network. That means that some devices and applications will be enabled inside of IBM more quickly than others, and some may never be enabled at all.
Nigerian firms and their employees would do well to a take a cue from this global technology company.
E-Business
Cyber Resilience a Critical Priority for Manufacturing Amid Rapid Digitalization – Report Shows
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.
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.
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.
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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