Kaspersky, a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company, warns of a prominent threat to website owners, including small and medium-sized businesses: search engine optimisation (SEO) spam and hidden links embedded on legitimate websites.

SEO is the practice of improving a website’s visibility in search engine results through ethical strategies like keyword optimisation, high-quality content creation and building authoritative backlinks.

However, malicious actors are exploiting this process by injecting hidden links on reputable sites to manipulate search rankings, often linking to illicit content such as pornography or gambling, jeopardising businesses’ online presence and reputation.

The consequences for affected websites are severe, including plummeting search rankings, eroded visitor trust and potential legal liability if linked to illegal content. The attackers’ goals may be to discredit certain websites or to channel traffic to certain portals.

Attackers embed hidden links on websites by exploiting compromised administrator accounts, outdated website content management system extensions (which were initially designed to enhance the functionality and features) or server weaknesses, allowing them to directly edit the site’s HTML code or inject malicious scripts. Security solutions may categorise such websites as prohibited and block traffic to them.

Popular blogs and forums are among the targets due to their high traffic, making them valuable for boosting attacker-controlled sites. Websites with less traffic are also vulnerable, as attackers exploit weaker security to inject these links, which can go unnoticed until traffic drops or search engines issue penalties.

“Kaspersky’s categorisation engine constantly detects hidden links pointing to pornographic and gambling sites. SEO spam is a serious threat that can silently undermine a company’s digital credibility and financial stability. These hidden links not only exploit a website’s authority to boost illicit sites but can also trigger harsh penalties from search engines and security solutions, devastating businesses that rely on online visibility.

Proactive defence of the website admin panel and content management system is critical to staying ahead of these evolving attacks,” said Anna Larkina, Web Content and Privacy Analysis Expert at Kaspersky.

Kaspersky recommends regular audits of website source code for suspicious elements, using trusted tools such as Google Search Console or OpenLinkProfiler. Businesses should keep CMS platforms and plugins updated, enforce strong passwords with two-factor authentication and restrict admin panel access by IP address. Deploying web application firewalls and maintaining regular backups are also essential to prevent and recover from unauthorised changes.

New York Stock Exchange listed IHS Towers, the largest independent owner, operator and developer of shared communications infrastructure in Africa and one of the largest in the world by tower count, has delivered strong third quarter earnings ahead of expectations while revisiting its full 2025 guidance upwards.

This is on the back of its strong Nigeria performance where Sam Darwish, Chairman and CEO, tells thousands of Wall Street investors and analysts on its earnings call that “the current Nigerian administration has done in our opinion a great job in stabilizing and improving the economic outlook of the country as they increase reserves and strengthened the currency, while reducing red tape for businesses among other fundamental actions. So, we are upbeat about Nigeria.”.

In Nigeria, revenue increased 10.6% year-on-year to $268.0 million, driven by organic growth during the period and supplemented by favorable movements in the Naira versus the U.S. dollar.

Across the Group, revenue for the period increased by 8.3% year-on-year to $455.1 million, despite a 3.0% inorganic revenue headwind resulting from the disposal of the Company’s Kuwait operations in December 2024. Organic revenue growth of 6.6% reflected constant currency growth of 8.7% and the benefit of foreign exchange (“FX”) resets, partially offset by a reduction in revenues linked to power indexation.

Constant currency growth was primarily driven by higher contributions from colocation, lease amendments, new sites, fiber, and escalators. This strong underlying performance was further supported by a 4.7% benefit from favorable FX movements, particularly the appreciation of the Nigerian Naira against the U.S. dollar.

Adjusted EBITDA rose by 6.3% year-on-year to $261.5 million, despite a 3.3% impact from the Kuwait disposal. The Adjusted EBITDA margin of 57.5% remained consistent with the second quarter of 2025, while net income for the period totaled $147.4 million.

Adjusted Levered Free Cash Flow (ALFCF) surged by 81.2% to $157.8 million, reflecting management actions to enhance free cash flow generation and the re-phasing of interest payments between quarters following the November 2024 bond refinancing. Cash from operations increased by 42.3% to $259.6 million.

Total capital expenditure rose 16.3% year-on-year to $77.3 million, driven by the timing of maintenance and augmentation projects. The consolidated net leverage ratio improved to 3.3x, down 0.6x from the prior year, comfortably within the Company’s target range of 3.0x to 4.0x.

Reflecting the strong year-to-date performance and favorable currency movements, the Company has raised its full-year 2025 guidance.

In Nigeria the Group’s largest operation, organic revenue increased by $12.2 million, an increase of 5.0% year-on-year, driven primarily by foreign exchange resets and escalations, which more than offset a reduction in revenues linked to diesel prices. Continued growth in revenue from Colocation, Lease Amendments and New Sites was partially offset by Churn related to the approximately 1,050 sites MTN Nigeria agreed to vacate as part of the renewed and extended contracts with MTN Nigeria, signed during the third quarter of 2024.

The increase in organic revenue was supplemented by favorable movements in foreign exchange rates used to translate the results of foreign operations, with an average Naira rate of ₦1,523 to $1.00 in the third quarter of 2025 compared to an average rate of ₦1,601 to $1.00 in the third quarter of 2024. This led to a non-core increase of $13.5 million, or 5.6% year-on-year.

Nigeria has officially launched the Nigeria Talent Accelerator Network, a game-changing initiative aimed at strengthening the nation’s workforce capabilities, addressing critical productivity gaps, accelerating digital transformation, and preparing Nigeria’s workforce for the future of work.

The initiative is part of the World Economic Forum’s Reskilling Revolution in Nigeria, co-chaired by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and the Federal Ministry of Education, and coordinated by the National Talent Export Programme (NATEP), marking Nigeria’s entry into the Global Accelerators Network.

The platform aims to mobilise multi-stakeholder partnerships to work collectively and reshape global talent development, empowering local talent to meet emerging economic realities.

Commenting, Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, described the launch as “a decisive step towards building a globally competitive workforce that can power Nigeria’s next phase of industrialisation and innovation.

“The Nigeria Talent Accelerator Network represents a turning point in connecting policy, industry, and education. It creates a unified platform for driving employability, productivity, and inclusive economic growth.”

Similarly, the Honourable Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Alausa, speaking during the Launch, reaffirmed Ministry’s dedication to aligning education and vocational training with labour market needs, ensuring that Nigerian youth are equipped with future-ready skills and are competitive globally.

The Accelerator will serve as a platform for collaboration among government agencies, private sector leaders, academic institutions, and civil society. Together, these stakeholders will co-create scalable solutions to reskill and upskill the Nigerian workforce, while aligning national education and employment policies with the demands of the modern economy.

“Through this collaboration, Nigeria is not only preparing for the future of work but also helping to define it. We are developing a coordinated Action Plan to address the talent gaps and leverage the huge opportunities for talent export,” said Teju Abisoye, the National Coordinator of NATEP.

The initiative will prioritize the development of digital and transferable skills to support emerging sectors such as technology, business process outsourcing, and green industries. It will also focus on mobilizing public-private partnerships to fund and scale reskilling programs, enabling workforce redeployment into high-demand roles, and building data-driven systems to anticipate future skills needs and inform responsive policymaking.

Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director, World Economic Forum welcomed the launch, noting that ‘The World Economic Forum is pleased to collaborate with Nigeria on advancing its skills development and workforce readiness. This initiative reflects our shared commitment to equip individuals with the capabilities needed to thrive in a rapidly changing global economy. By investing in human capital, Nigeria is positioning itself not only to meet domestic workforce needs but also to contribute talent and innovation to the global economy’.

Nigeria’s participation in this global initiative underscores its commitment to strengthening human capital development, promoting digital inclusion, and positioning the nation as a competitive talent hub for Africa and the world.

The Accelerator complements ongoing national reforms aimed at diversifying the economy, deepening innovation capacity, and driving broad-based prosperity.

The Reskilling Revolution is a World Economic Forum initiative aimed at providing better education, skills, and economic opportunities to one billion people by 2030.

It brings together global businesses, governments, and learning institutions to drive national transformation through programs such as Skills and Education Accelerators and the Reskilling Revolution Champions and Commitments.,.