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Software Practitioners Seek Action on Local Content Policy

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Software practitioners in the country were united on the need for federal government to expedite action on the implementation and enforcement of the various executive orders on local content at the 2018 president’s dinner of Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON) held over the weekend.

 

Olorogun, James Emadoye, president, ISPON, said that the advancement of Nigerian local content in software development, in contracts, science and overall ICT space was essential yesterday, germane today and he has no doubt it will remain an indispensable factor in our history as a country, if we are to change the current reality where Nigeria is recorded amongst the poorest nations of the world.

 

“The most important resource in any endeavor has been widely recognized as the human resource. Every other resource, processes or even automation, in most cases, are objects that are under human control.

 

“We cannot thank God enough that he has endowed us with smart, strong and enterprising people.  Other nations are looking for Nigerians in every sphere of human endeavor to help build their system.

 

“Nigerians are doing exploits in every nook and cranny of the world which of course has become a global village without boundaries, made possible by technology of which software is the domain,” he said.

 

According to him, ‘ISPON believes that Nigeria can record some significant achievement in the world software business and global market, if Nigerians support local content.

 

We must remove the conditional statement ‘if’, we must support Local Content; we must ensure that the letter and the spirit of Executive Orders 003 and 005 are brought to the fore and remain our guiding principles in all our business transactions, in the overall interest of our national development’.

 

He said that enforcing these presidential orders will require the utmost vigilance by all enforcement departments of government as well as security agencies.

 

“Active collaboration with professional associations like ISPON, NCS and CPN is also significant and required,” he noted.

 

He added that the recently signed Executive Orders by the president will finally begin to give local software industry and practitioners a chance to improve their skills and products with minimal stifling competition from foreign firms.

 

Emadoye however, called on the Federal Government to enthrone a National Software Policy Strategy and related Legislation and indeed, all well-meaning Nigerians to give the country a chance to develop for the sake of our children and the generation unborn.

 

“We just cannot continue the same ways that have failed us. It is time we change our ways. Software-Nigeria is the sustainable way forward for our national accelerated development in the knowledge economy which is currently driving the 4th industrial revolution,” he said.

 

Prof. Charles Uwadia,  President and Chairman-in-Council of Computer Professional (Registration Council of Nigeria) (CPN), said that software is at the heart of information Technology and computing and that implementation of local content policy is very import because, it is about the future of our children.

 

“If we don’t implement it, we will continue to have brain drain in the country.”

 

Professor Adesola Aderounmu, President of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), said that software is going to rule the world and to this end government should create enabling environment for people to go into software development.

 

“Software development will help to solve unemployment in the country,” he added.


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Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

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E-Business

Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

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Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.

Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

 

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”.

 

 

 


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NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website

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National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a public warning that it is not associated with NINcard.com.

NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website

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.


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NITDA, API Partner Against Harmful Online Content

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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.

NITDA, API Partner Against 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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