E-Business
Layer3Cloud Achieves PCI-DSS Certification

Layer3Cloud, an innovative provider of cloud services, has announced it has achieved certification to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS).
Through Layer3Cloud’s compliance with the rigorous PCI standard, customers using her services to run mission-critical applications can be assured that their security is maintained at the highest level and has been independently validated.
PCI-DSS is a proprietary information security standard administered by the PCI Security Standards Council and applies to all entities that store, process or transmit cardholder data and/or sensitive authentication data including merchants, processors, acquirers, issuers, and service providers. The standard applies to any organization that stores, transmits or accepts cardholder data.
With this achievement, Layer3Cloud joins the list of cloud service providers to have complied with all the most stringent global security standards. This follow’s Layer3’s very recent ISO 27001 certification as well achieving the ISO 27017 cloud security compliance.
While the ISO 27001 standard ensures that organizations have established methodologies and framework to business and IT processes to help identify, manage, and reduce risks to the security of information, ISO 27017 is a security standard developed for cloud service providers and users to make a safer cloud-based environment and reduce the risk of security problems. Layer3Cloud becomes the only cloud service provider in Africa to have attained all 3 of the most important security certifications.
“PCI DSS certification is one of the most rigorous globally recognized payment card security standards available and shows how serious we take security and customers’ payment data. PCI DSS compliance coupled with ISO 27001 and ISO 27017 shows our ongoing commitment to building trust with our customers”, said Chinua Katchy, Layer3’s Information Security Manager.
Layer3Cloud is a purpose-built cloud infrastructure as a service platform, running out of multiple data centers in geographically dispersed regions of Nigeria. For financial institutions, e-commerce merchants, PSP (payment service providers) and more broadly, any customer that stores, transmits, or accepts cardholder data, using Layer3Cloud will greatly facilitate their own PCI DSS compliance.
Additionally, Layer3Cloud allows customers achieve their local data residency and business continuity ambitions while also providing superior performance due to ultralow latency access to resources.
Oyaje Idoko, Layer3’s CEO added, “For us at Layer3, service excellence, customer experience and security always come first. Our promise is to deliver peace of mind to our customers — this is the foundation on which strong, trusted brands are built.
“We have continued to work assiduously to achieve this feat and will continue investing heavily in our people, technology, and processes to maintain the highest standard of security, customer experience and service excellence in the industry.”
E-Business
Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.
China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.
The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.
“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.
The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.
It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.
Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.
Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.
Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.
A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.
“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.
Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.
Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.
It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.
Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.
E-Business
NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website

National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a public warning that it is not associated with NINcard.com.
According to the commission, the website has been circulating online to offer services for Nigerians seeking National Identification Number (NIN) services.
NIMC, in a post on its official X account on Wednesday, said, “NINcard.com is not in anyway affiliated to NIMC. Stay vigilant!”
The warning was accompanied by screenshots of fake payment receipts and OTP request pages from the website, both of which were boldly stamped “FAKE” by NIMC to alert the public.
E-Business
NITDA, API Partner Against Harmful Online Content

National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in partnership with the Advocacy for Policy and Innovation (API), has convened a one-day workshop in Abuja to advance dialogue on the draft Online Harm Protection (OHP) Bill to confront harmful online content.
The bill, a rights-based, locally rooted, and multi-stakeholder initiative, is aimed at addressing the challenges of the digital age.
The event, which held yesterday, brought together government officials, civil society, academics, digital platforms, and legal experts to shape a policy framework designed to combat online ills such as cyberbullying, disinformation, hate speech, digital exploitation, and gender-based violence, while safeguarding democratic freedoms and digital inclusion.
In his keynote remarks, Kashifu Inuwa, director general, NITDA urged a paradigm shift in the way society engages with digital technologies.
“For almost two decades, we have viewed digital technology through a consumer lens. But these technologies are not just products and services. They are transforming how we live, work, and interact. They shape our politics, our society, and our democracy,” he said.
Warning against unaccountable digital power in the hands of private corporations, the DG likened the digital journey to the tale of Alice in Wonderland, where initial fascination with innovation has given way to deeper concerns about privacy, autonomy, and manipulation by big tech platforms.
“We thought we were using Google, but now we realise Google is using us. Social media, once a tool of expression, has become a tool of surveillance and influence,” Inuwa noted.
He, therefore, emphasised the urgency of developing a democratic and accountable framework. He explained that following the 2021 Twitter ban, NITDA facilitated dialogue between the government and platform operators, leading to a Code of Practice that stressed Nigeria’s sovereignty and legal standards.
According to him, the same process birthed the multi-stakeholder steering committee and the OHP White Paper in December 2024, laying the foundation for the current legislative push.
Earlier in her opening remarks, Victoria Manya, co-founder, API, observed the moral and civic necessity of the bill.
Her words: “The internet did not break society, it merely revealed its unfiltered version. Every day, Nigerians are exposed to harassment, disinformation, exploitation, and even algorithmic violence. The OHP Bill is not a war on the Internet. It is a peace offering to its users, a social contract for a digital future that is safe, inclusive, and democratic.
“We cannot answer the question of algorithmic power with unchecked state control. We must answer it with shared, rights-based governance. This bill must not be written for the people, but with them.”
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