E-Business
What the Security Needs to Fight Terrorism
By Andrew Aroh
During this time of increased use of commercial satellite equipment and services, internal and market changes are surfacing. Gone are the days of mere satellite capacity for non-secure communications.
Now, companies looking to do business with the security are being called upon to set up baseline standards that work towards solving security requirements and expand services into new areas like terrorism.
A blue print is required:
We need to establish a baseline understanding that we are going to have assured access to commercial satellite communications.
One problem with commercial satellite operators is this unwieldy gaggle of entities that we have to deal with at the various satellite companies.
The emphasis is on streamlining procedures to act as a catalyst to the security to increase its use of commercial SATCOMS end-user terminals and transponder time.
In addition to better procurement procedures, there has been a growing emphasis on reliability of product-basically if it is found to be unreliable, is not worth procuring, since lives can literally be at stake.
Given the current war climate, more efficiency within the procurement cycle among the satellite equipment and services providers will be paramount. SATCOM professionals are by this means urging those government officials in charge of procurement to tighten the noose on current leniency measures offered to the contractors. We are promoting an acquisition policy environment that fosters efficiency, flexibility, creativity and innovation when approaching the bidding, contracting and use of commercial satellite services.
The question is what is the number of security requirements that the commercial SATCOM sector can meet in order to make the security/commercial purchasing process easier some of these include:
- Setting up single capacity arrangements whereby the security is enabled to lease spares and excess capacity quickly and hardware that is easy to use
- More reliability and maintainability of end-user equipment
- Commercial spectrum support on issues nationally and internationally
- Transition to new technologies as new innovations and efficiencies are offered by the commercial sector
- Both the security establishment as well as commercial satellite communication operators can benefit from a firmer partnership in the future as it relates to infrastructure changes and service upgrades. One such upgrade/change can now be seen within the arena of fighting terrorism.
- Who is going to pay for better security:
When it comes to the war on terror one thing is for certain: satellite must be reliable and robust enough to protect vested interests. Satellite can provide reliable telecom channels and distribute time-critical data fast.
But even though the government recognizes the integral role satellites play in fighting the war on terror, some on the commercial side say more is needed from the military side. On a broader scale, any safeguards installed to enhance national security will end up improving all aspects of life.
The caveat, however, is that the space & satellite industry cannot pay for all of this itself. Now, while there is a push from the commercial sector for the military to become a more lucrative customer, counting on the government to be a business saving cash cow is not a smart strategy. So what should space & satellite companies do?
One option is to convince state and local governments to band together into buying consortium, so they are big enough to purchase satellite services.
Another option is to convince these same levels of government to start using mobile satellite system services [MSS], so they can integrate them into their day-to-day lives. This is the most powerful option as it charts the way for the future all over the world. SSPI Nigeria is standing by to lend a hand in this respect.
- Further educating the security sector:
The commercial satellite industry is, however, steading gaining ground in terms of increasing the awareness of key decision makers both in the federal government and in the local government sector of the significant role that satellites can play in combating terror still, much needs to be done in getting the message out and understood by those who make the procurement decisions.
SSPI NIGERIA will be doing a lot more in terms of outreach and education this year. It is important that this knowledge about satellite technology be widely understood by personnel at local and regional government levels. We see local officials nationwide as shackled by a lack of SATCOM expertise and overwhelmed by all the unsolicited proposals they have piled on their desk.
The problem is a relatively uneducated community in need of a course in satellite 101 which covers hubs, remote and space segment mapped to a terrestrial infrastructure with mobile outreach capabilities.
What is going to work here? The public safety community is swamped by the range of capabilities and thus is finding it hard if not impossible to answer this question.
Because of the importance of the space & satellite industry to our nation, we recommend that steps be taken to promote appropriate revisions to existing policy and the development of new policy regarding security offered by satellite systems, to ensure that federal agencies appropriately address the use of commercial satellites, including the sensitivity of information, security techniques and enforcement mechanisms.
In addition, we are recommending that commercial satellites be identified as critical infrastructure sector [or as part of an already identified critical infrastructure sector]in the national critical infrastructure strategy, to help ensure these assets are protected from unauthorized access and disruption.
We assert that satellite specific language is inserted into the ongoing legislation revisions on the current policy regarding security offered by satellite.
In fact, language scripted within new guidelines need to put more emphasis on describing the user needs in terms of capabilities rather than technical or engineering parameters and providing an opportunity for mid-phase assessment of design maturity by adding a review segment to the project process.
Whatever the future brings, one thing will remain certain: commercial satellite technology and service will continue to play an integral part in government operations. Making the process more streamslined and efficient from bidding to actual service, however, is where near-term emphasis will remain.
In addition to establishing a working business baseline of procedures, there are some specific needs that must be fulfilled.
Given the current global war/polices climate, the security need to increase its space segments procurements.
We really need to know where we are going when it comes to communication oversight and any coordination of space & satellite communications. This remain to be seen. We want language that signals the government wants agencies like NEMA to quickly stream line and simplify any and all resource acquisition procedures for the states. Making interoperable communications gear available-including satellite gear need to be a high priority.
Limited state budgets in many instances simply do not allow for any widespread implementation of satellite technology. Will the threat of bioterrorism and nuclear devices alter this situation? Will an office of emergency satellite communications be created? Or will the existing set of plans overseen as part of the national communications system suffice?
Avoiding any unnecessary and burdensome expansion of infrastructure is priority as well. The real objective is meeting the critical communications needs of the end-users, whether we are talking about first responders, emergency management coordinators or the general public.
Note that emergency SATCOM is not an exotic solution. It should be available for instantaneous use in every state and its local governments.
Remember that we are into a new era of quick response modes, often greatly enhanced by commercial communications satellite technology.
There are three areas where commercial SATCOM technology can significantly play a role: communications, remote sensing and data information services such as weather.
Ubiquitous satellite communications and unlimited bandwidth seemed the destiny of the world.
In addition to widening the bandwidth for security customers, informational satellite image produced by the commercial imaging companies is yet another venue where stronger security/commercial synergies can prove profitable.
The security sector in terms of geospatial and imagery information products and services is growing. The key driver in the budget growth right now is the commercial remote sensing industry coming online.
The Future:
The appropriate role of the government in facilitating commercial space businesses naturally is an ongoing debate. Whether the debate more closely focuses on enhanced communications secure-specific satellite programs or intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) information products remains to be seen.
Therefore,
I believe that the security and the commercial satellite communications arena are linked together at the hip during our lifetimes
However, commercial satellite will always have that reach-back capability that is vital for successful communications.
It is a good thing that the federal government recently launched military coordination center at Abuja. The ICT in place is satellite-based.
But we have always focused attention at the federal level.
WHAT ABOUT THE STATES AND THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEVELS?
A lot still remains to be done at these levels. This is the time to act to create that required national awareness at the grassroot level.
IF THE PRESIDENT’S NATIONAL SECURITY TELECOMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE IS FORMULATING ANYTHING RESEMBLING A SATELLITE SPECIFIC AGENDA (NOT JUST BY ESTABLISHING A CO-ORDINATION CENTER) WE HAVE YET TO DETECT IT. A LOT OF ARROWS ARE POINTING IN THE DIRECTION OF A MORE INTEGRATED APPROACH TO EMERGENCY SATCOM.
Contrary to popular belief, using cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools slowed down experienced software developers when they were working in codebases familiar to them, rather than supercharging their work, a new study found.
AI research nonprofit METR conducted the in-depth study, on a group of seasoned developers earlier this year while they used Cursor, a popular AI coding assistant, to help them complete tasks in open-source projects they were familiar with.
Before the study, the open-source developers believed using AI would speed them up, estimating it would decrease task completion time by 24%. Even after completing the tasks with AI, the developers believed that they had decreased task times by 20%. But the study found that using AI did the opposite: it increased task completion time by 19%.
The study’s lead authors, Joel Becker and Nate Rush, said they were shocked by the results: prior to the study, Rush had written down that he expected “a 2x speed up, somewhat obviously.”
The findings challenge the belief that AI always makes expensive human engineers much more productive, a factor that has attracted substantial investment into companies selling AI products to aid software development.
AI is also expected to replace entry-level coding positions. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, recently told Axios that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white collar jobs in the next one to five years.
Prior literature on productivity improvements has found significant gains: one study found using AI sped up coders by 56%, another study found developers were able to complete 26% more tasks in a given time.
But the new METR study shows that those gains don’t apply to all software development scenarios. In particular, this study showed that experienced developers intimately familiar with the quirks and requirements of large, established open source codebases experienced a slowdown.
Other studies often rely on software development benchmarks for AI, which sometimes misrepresent real-world tasks, the study’s authors said.
The slowdown stemmed from developers needing to spend time going over and correcting what the AI models suggested.
“When we watched the videos, we found that the AIs made some suggestions about their work, and the suggestions were often directionally correct, but not exactly what’s needed,” Becker said.
The authors cautioned that they do not expect the slowdown to apply in other scenarios, such as for junior engineers or engineers working in codebases they aren’t familiar with.
Still, the majority of the study’s participants, as well as the study’s authors, continue to use Cursor today.
The authors believe it is because AI makes the development experience easier, and in turn, more pleasant, akin to editing an essay instead of staring at a blank page.
“Developers have goals other than completing the task as soon as possible,” Becker said. “So they’re going with this less effortful route.”
Kaspersky GReAT (Global Research and Analysis Team) experts have discovered open-source packages that download the Quasar backdoor and a stealer designed to exfiltrate cryptocurrency. The malicious packages are intended for the Cursor AI development environment, which is based on Visual Studio Code — a tool used for AI-assisted coding.
The malicious open-source packages are extensions hosted in the Open VSX repository that claim to provide support for the Solidity programming language. However, in practice, they download and execute malicious code on users’ devices.
During an incident response, a blockchain developer from Russia reached out to Kaspersky after installing one of these fake extensions on his computer, which allowed attackers to steal approximately $500,000 worth of crypto assets.
The threat actor behind these packages managed to deceive the developer by making the malicious package rank higher than the legitimate one. The attacker achieved this by artificially inflating the malicious package’s downloads count to 54,000.
After installation, the victim gained no actual functionality from the extension. Instead, malicious ScreenConnect software was installed on the computer, granting threat actors remote access to the infected device.
Using this access, they deployed the open-source Quasar backdoor along with a stealer that collects data from browsers, email clients, and crypto wallets. With these tools, the threat actors were able to obtain the developer’s wallet seed phrases and subsequently steal cryptocurrency from the accounts.
After the malicious extension downloaded by the developer was discovered and removed from the repository, the threat actor republished it and artificially inflated its installation count to a higher number – 2 million, compared to 61,000 for the legitimate package. The extension was removed from the platform following a request from Kaspersky.
“Spotting compromised open-source packages with the naked eye is becoming increasingly difficult. Threat actors are using increasingly creative tactics to deceive potential victims, even developers who have a strong understanding of cybersecurity risks — particularly those working in the blockchain development field.
As we expect adversaries to continue targeting developers, it is recommended that even experienced IT professionals deploy dedicated security solutions to safeguard sensitive data and prevent financial losses,” commented Georgy Kucherin, Security Researcher with Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team.
The threat actor behind the attack published not only malicious Solidity extensions but also another NPM package, solsafe, which also downloads ScreenConnect. A few months earlier, three additional malicious Visual Studio Code extensions were released — solaibot, among-eth, and blankebesxstnion — all of them have already been removed from the repository.
Kashifu Inuwa CCIE, the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has reaffirmed the Federal Government’s unwavering commitment to achieving 95% digital literacy across Nigeria by the year 2030, with an ambitious milestone of 70% by 2027.
This disclosure was made in total alignment with the present administration’s priority areas of reforming the economy for sustained inclusive growth and accelerating diversification through industrialisation, digitisation, creative arts, manufacturing, and innovation.
Making this known during a collaborative meeting hosted by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Inuwa highlighted the government’s strategic prioritisation of human capital development as central to its national transformation agenda.
“We started this journey in 2023 when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came on board and he made it clear that economic diversification and inclusivity are part of the administration’s agenda,” he noted.
“And the president outlined this in 8 priority areas to achieve the vision, with priority number 7 specifically focused on accelerating industrialisation, digitisation, creative arts, manufacturing, and innovation,” he added.
Recognising the importance of digital fluency in achieving this agenda, he stated that NITDA is committed to investing in the digital empowerment of citizens through the development of the National Digital Literacy Framework (NDLF), a strategic blueprint aligned with international best practices.
He added that to tailor the framework to Nigeria’s specific needs, 6 core competency areas were incorporated to include device and software operations, information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, content creation, safety, and problem solving.
He explained that the framework would address all levels of digital fluency, from basic, intermediate to advanced levels, to make digital skills accessible to every Nigerian, from primary school pupils to working professionals.
According to Inuwa, despite data limitations, NITDA estimates that Nigeria’s digital literacy rate currently stands at 50%, up from 44% in 2021, based on extrapolations from the World Bank’s Better Life Report.
The NITDA DG disclosed that the agency has been working closely with the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) in developing a curriculum for digital literacy, which can be infused into formal education. Stating that the visit is a continuation of NITDA’s ongoing engagements with key education stakeholders, including the Federal Ministry of Education, the National Universities Commission (NUC), and the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), all aimed at advancing digital literacy across all levels of learning.
Inuwa also revealed ongoing collaborations with global platforms such as Coursera to train teachers using AI-powered lesson generation tools and provide scalable online training.
It is worth recalling that late last year, NITDA partnered with the Nasarawa State University in collaboration with CISCO in launching the Digital Learning for NSUK (DL4NSUK) initiative to enhance digital literacy in tertiary institutions, and equipping graduates with the skills needed to be digitally proficient and globally competitive.
While stressing that the entire process, from curriculum development to classroom delivery, would require a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach, Inuwa said, “This is not a journey we can walk alone; we must bring everyone on board, education stakeholders, technology providers, state governments, and international partners.”
In response to the DG’s remarks, UBEC Executive Secretary, Hajiya Aisha Garba, confirmed that the Commission has officially received the digital literacy curriculum developed by NITDA and NERDC and has commenced internal review processes.
She acknowledged the curriculum as robust and forward-looking but stressed the need for simplification to suit early learners and teachers, citing challenges such as curriculum overload, limited teacher capacity, and inadequate infrastructure as key barriers to effective implementation.
She pledged that UBEC, in partnership with the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), will lead efforts to equip schools with computers and solar-powered infrastructure to support real learning.
“We’re committed to working with NITDA and NERDC to refine the curriculum, train teachers, and ensure effective delivery. Let us align the technical vision with grassroots realities to make a lasting impact,” she concluded.
To formalise the implementation of the meeting’s resolutions, a joint inter-agency committee was established to develop strategic plans that will ensure the effective rollout of the digital literacy initiative, to equip young Nigerians with the essential digital skills required to thrive in an increasingly dynamic and technology-driven global landscape.
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