E-Business
Spectrum – Oxygen of A Digital World
The internet in such a short time has become the most pervasive communication system in the world. Digital statistics show that whilst it took Radio 38 years and TV 13 years to individually reach 50 million users; it took the Internet only 4 years.
Even though the world is increasingly interconnected through mobile, high-speed communications, two thirds of the world’s population have yet to gain access to the Internet (UN Millennium Goals, 2012 Update Report).
Also not debatable is the economic and social impact of the internet.
A study by the World Bank revealed that a 10% increase in broadband penetration can boost the GDP growth of low- and middle-income developing countries by 1.38% — more than any other telecommunication service.
Over the last 20 years, the Internet and the Web have transformed our lives.
Looking forward, we are seeing even more exciting digital developments that will provide more benefits to more people in more places.
Some of the unprecedented opportunities that broadband connectivity presents include:
Citizen – get information/work done anywhere and anytime, also having newer ways for communicating, contributing, acting, and learning.
Businesses – News ways to serve clients and new competitive advantages, new ways to be more productive.
Innovators – New market segments, geographies, business opportunities, and competitiveness regardless of size.
Government – News ways to serve citizens and businesses, address core societal issues (Education, Healthcare, Environment etcetera), and provide Infrastructure for innovation/research leading to creation of more jobs (SMEs)
The internet has become so central to our existence in this age that the UN, defined access to the Internet as now among one of global citizens’ most basic rights.
The European Commission’s Digital Agenda goes one step further by similarly highlighting broadband access as a basic right.
Invariably connectivity (interchangeably here Spectrum) is essential in the same sense as oxygen: invisible and unnoticed, until you don’t have it (and by then you are dead).
It is therefore sad that today most of the world’s population is unconnected.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) estimates that for over 3.9 billion people, around 61% of the world’s population, the price of fixed broadband is unaffordable.
By continent this ranges from 8% of the population of Europe, to 90% of the population of Africa.
Likewise, basic mobile broadband is unaffordable for over 2.6 billion of the world’s population.
On the flip side the need for persistent connectivity is fueling innovation and consequentially proliferation of devices – it is expected that by 2020 there will be more than 100 billion connected intelligent devices globally.
And of course the vast majority of this connection is relying on wireless technologies and the currency of the wireless industry is Spectrum; literally the oxygen of the digital world.
Spectrum describes the range of frequencies, which wireless devices can use to transmit and receive information.
In order to manage access to spectrum, regulators allocate different bands of frequencies for different uses and establish technical rules to minimize the likelihood of harmful interference. Some bands of spectrum are licensed for the exclusive use of certain entities and specified purposes.
These include uses as varied as military and public safety purposes as well as commercial applications such as radio, television and broadband Internet.
Other bands are set aside for shared use on an unlicensed or license-exempt basis. Common uses of unlicensed or license-exempt spectrum today are Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth devices.
It is relevant to note that historically, spectrum was managed by assigning exclusive rights to use a specific frequency in a specific location.
Initially, these authorizations were granted to governmental and commercial users at no cost. Since last two decades however, long term commercial licenses have generally been assigned through competitive auctions.
Winning bidders typically receive spectrum access in the form of exclusive assignments of frequencies to chosen services (i.e., licenses), ensuring that no other services infringe on that assignment (i.e., no interference).
Obviously limited by technology signal interference were considered a major problem of spectrum which ultimately drove the way spectrum management were therefore conceptualize, create blocks of delineated bands that guarantees exclusive use and protection of licensees’ signals.
The problem however is that this traditional licensing model of spectrum bands has limited the amount of usable spectrum for wireless data communications, particularly as the demand for data, voice, and video traffic continues to explode on Internet enabled mobile devices.
To obtain more spectrum for these applications, regulators around the world are considering proposals to assign more spectrum for exclusive use licensing.
However, nearly all the RF spectrum is allocated for specific applications, making reallocation of exclusive use licenses extremely challenging and time consuming.
In reality, large portions of the allocated spectrum are not actively used in space and time.
To alleviate this disparity in spectrum use, researchers and policy makers have proposed the concept of Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA), allowing devices to use unoccupied portions of spectrum without interfering with the licensee’s transmissions
Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) is an umbrella term used to describe a set of technologies and techniques enabling radio communications devices to opportunistically transmit on available radio spectrum.
These technologies and techniques ensure that consumers and their devices have wireless bandwidth when and where they need it.
We at Microsoft belief that the first globally-harmonized opportunity to use DSA technologies and techniques will be in the TV bands.
Technologies exist today that can use TV band white spaces spectrum for a range of wireless applications, from broadband, to wireless offload, to machine-to-machine.
The term TV White Space spectrum refers to frequencies in the VHF and UHF television broadcast bands that are either unassigned or unused by existing broadcast or other licensees.
Television broadcasts occupy designated channels in the VHF and UHF bands, with the assignment of channels to broadcasts varying by location.
Not all the designated channels are in use for broadcast in any given market, giving rise to “White Spaces” in which a channel that is not used for broadcast may be available for other purposes.
Unlocking the TV band and other unused white spaces spectrum will mean significantly increasing the total amount of bandwidth available for consumers and their devices – and thereby alleviating pressure on other spectrum bands.
Based on the results of trials Microsoft has conducted in the U.S, Europe and Asia, we believe that TVWS technology will be able to deliver similar functionality and high speeds compared to other wireless broadband technologies.
TVWS has couple of distinct advantages highlighted below:
TVWS networks work in much the same way as conventional Wi-Fi, but the signals travel over longer distances than the typical Wi-Fi signal.
Conventional Wi-Fi is relatively weak when it comes to working in typical physical settings – bumping up against concrete obstructions and many types of walls. TVWS can overcome these limits.
Just as your TV signal passes through walls (and many of them), the wireless signal for your Internet connection will as well.
Ability to achieve greater efficiencies
Covering a longer and wider range with approximately the – same power and computing requirements results in systems – that will deliver more bandwidth and more consumer benefits at lower network costs and lower power consumption.
Given these inherent distinct advantages, some specific scenario that TVWS easily lends itself to as a best in class solution include:
Leveraging long range characteristics enables scenarios like Cellular offloading; Rural broadband/backhaul; Wide-coverage hotspots; Sensor network; Wireless surveillance system; etc.
Whilst its obstacle penetration/avoidance characteristics enables Indoor video distribution; M2M –factory floor automation; Device to device network; etc.
For over 5 years, Microsoft has been working with industry and government partners around the world to demonstrate the viability and potential of Dynamic Spectrum and TV White Spaces.
The viability of the technology has been proven in over a dozen trials and commercial deployments around the world – ranging from remote villages of Africa to the dense urban centers of Asia.
As part of efforts to drive thought leadership in this space, Microsoft recently partnered with couple of other stakeholders to form the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance; a global, cross-industry alliance focused on increasing dynamic access to unused radio frequencies.
DSA is advocating for laws and regulations that will lead to more efficient and effective spectrum utilization.
Its membership spans multinationals, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and academic, research, and other organizations from around the world, all working to create innovative solutions that will increase the amount of available spectrum to the benefit of consumers and businesses alike.
Specific goals of DSA includes:
Closing the Digital Divide –supporting technical, regulatory, and business model innovations that can reduce the cost of deploying last-mile wireless networks and help to make wireless broadband access more affordable for people around the world.
Enabling the Internet of Things – supporting spectrum policies that can enable the burgeoning Internet of Things – with potentially billions of interconnected wireless devices operating on our behalf – increasing efficiency and improving quality of life.
Alleviating the “Spectrum Crunch” – The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance supports changing regulatory policies that create artificial spectrum scarcity and replace them with policies that will increase available bandwidth, reduce costs, and increase consumer choice.
In Nigeria we are at the fore-front of advocacy for the use of TVWS to help actualize the goals of the countries recently released well-articulated Broadband Policy Implementation Plan.
Amongst other broad goals, the broadband plans has a target to deliver 80% mobile broadband penetration by 2018 and an open access shared infrastructure environment to support future growth.
Microsoft is keen to with local partners participate in a TV band white spaces regulatory trials to explore large scale pilot that addresses scenarios of Education, eHealth, Rural Digital Inclusion, etc.
In conclusion, TVWS will enable new business models making access more affordable and can improve education, healthcare, e-government, small business empowerment & social inclusion; for this to materialize policymakers should think differently about spectrum allocation and regulation.
We support ongoing efforts to gain a better understanding of the viability and potential impact of TVWS in Nigeria by the Ministry of Communication Technology and the Federal Spectrum Management Council through ongoing discussions around regulatory trials and demonstration in the country.
We further recommend that TVWS ultimately be made available for license-exempt (unlicensed) access on a harmonized basis, facilitated by the use of geo-location databases and other interference protection mechanisms to support the Nations objectives of enabling ubiquitous affordable broadband connectivity and services across Nigeria country to better position the country to compete in the information age.
Olayinka Oni is seasoned IT professional with experience spanning consulting and the banking industry, he is currently the Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft Nigeria and he writes from Lagos.
E-Business
Organizations Face New Attacks via Unpatched TrueConf Videoconferencing Servers, Kaspersky Warns
Kaspersky has discovered a new multi-stage attack by the Head Mare APT group against organisations with PhantomCore and PhantomGraph backdoors. To deliver these backdoors, the attackers exploit vulnerabilities in unpatched TrueConf videoconferencing servers and can also replace TrueConf client installers with infected ones.
Kaspersky reported the attacks to the vendor; the vulnerabilities were fixed in the latest TrueConf Server update on June 18, 2026 (versions 5.3.9, 5.4.9, and 5.5.5).
To compromise the TrueConf server, attackers exploited a combination of two vulnerabilities (assigned internal Kaspersky identifiers are KLCERT-26-057 and KLCERT-26-058), which allowed the attackers to execute any code with maximum privileges. By exploiting these vulnerabilities, they replaced one of the server’s files with their own web shell.
The attackers then used this shell to collect information about the victim organisation’s IT infrastructure, gain privileged access to the TrueConf server database, and replace the client installer with an infected one. The attack applies to TrueConf servers in versions 5.3.X prior to 5.3.9, 5.4.X prior to 5.4.9, 5.5.X prior to 5.5.5, and earlier.
For users of TrueConf software, the attack looks like this: video conference participants connecting to the compromised server are prompted to download and install an “updated version” of the client application. In reality, as a result of this, malware gets onto the device.
“Exploiting vulnerabilities in popular services is one of the most common methods used by attackers. This campaign is particularly dangerous because it puts at risk not only organisations using unpatched TrueConf servers.
“Even if a company doesn’t use this solution, its employees can connect to compromised servers at the invitation of their counterparties to participate in online meetings. As a result, they may unknowingly download infected installation packages, creating the potential for compromising a large number of enterprises across different countries,” comments Evgeny Goncharov, Head of Kaspersky ICS CERT.
Kaspersky’s latest survey highlights a protection gap between macOS and Windows based devices. While macOS has long been regarded as the more secure operating system, 12% of its users reported malware infections compared with 9% of Windows users. Moreover, only 35% of macOS owners install dedicated security software, versus 42% of Windows users.
According to Kaspersky’s latest global survey*, Windows users report a higher adoption rate for most security measures, while macOS users show a modest advantage in a few privacy‑focused actions. At the same time, during the past year macOS users reported higher percentages than Windows users for a number of cybersecurity incidents.
The largest gap in cybersecurity approaches appears in the habit of not opening suspicious emails or links, with 62% of Windows users following this practice compared to 51% of macOS users.
What’s more, when it comes to cybersecurity software installation, macOS users are also lagging behind. While among Windows users 42% reported using digital‑life‑protection software, for macOS this rate is only 35%, what Kaspersky security experts call a worryingly low figure.
It is noteworthy that 12% of macOS respondents said they fell victim to phishing (fake emails, websites or messages) over the past year compared with 9% of Windows users. Moreover, during this period macOS users faced more scams and investment frauds (16% vs 13%), privacy violations (11% vs 8%) and thefts of personal data (12% vs 7%).
To counter these specific threats, robust anti-malware and anti-phishing protection is essential. Malware authors put a lot of effort into developing new, more powerful and stealthier versions of stealers, spies and other classes of malicious payloads, while relying on phishing techniques that allows them to get access to user’s data.
Dedicated security solutions add a crucial layer of real-time detection and defence that complements macOS’s built-in protection – and independent tests have repeatedly shown that effective options, such as Kaspersky Premium for macOS, deliver strong protection. In 2025, AV-TEST recognised it as the top-performing macOS security solution based on consistent, reliable results across a full year of evaluations.
When it comes to credentials and passwords safety, Windows users also show better security practices’ adoption rates. They lead in using a unique password for each account (38% vs 35%) and complex passwords (52% vs 45%), two‑factor or multi‑factor authentication (51% vs 46%).
Adopting a dedicated password manager becomes a logical next step. Such tools store all credentials in a secure vault protected by a single master password, eliminating the need to remember hundreds of passwords while keeping them safe from breaches.
They also support modern authentication methods like passkeys, enabling seamless, single-tap sign-in across all devices through secure synchronisation – capabilities offered by solutions such as Kaspersky Password Manager.
“There are entrenched stereotypes that macOS is inherently more secure because its user base is smaller, leading cyber‑criminals to deem it a lower‑value target, or because the platform itself includes many robust security features. While these observations are not entirely unfounded, the threat landscape has evolved dramatically.
Attackers actively employ phishing and commit supply chain attacks, which often allow them to affect users of any operating system in a single malware campaign. Moreover, mac specific malware is not rare and there are many malware families that target macs exclusively. Consequently, any device with an Internet connection, regardless of its operating system or form factor, requires cybersecurity software to defend against a wide range of cyber threats,” comments Sergey Puzan, cybersecurity expert at Kaspersky.
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.
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