Thursday, November 28African Digital Business Magazine

Tech

Events, Tech

AVEVA’s Fourth Global Digital Conference to Focus on Operational Agility, Resiliency and Innovation and Introduce PI System

June 2021 Virtual Event Offers First-Hand Opportunity for Industrial Enterprise Leaders to Discover How Digital Transformation Will Accelerate Business Growth in an Ever-Changing Operating Environment.  AVEVA, a global leader in industrial software, driving digital transformation and sustainability, will host its fourth AVEVA World Digital (AWD) conference on the 17th of June 2021. Aimed at leaders and decision-makers interested in innovative industrial technology, to deliver digital transformation and strengthen resilience in a challenging environment, this is the first joint AVEVA and PI System event since the company acquired OSIsoft earlier this year. AWD, a half-day event, will explore how data-led insights infused with artificial intelligence can help organizations optimize their val...
South Africa News, Tech

Cybersecurity is more than a tech issue – it’s a business problem too

A concerning number of South African companies are not prepared for the inevitability of a cyberattack despite the significant financial and reputational risks, according to Ryan Mer, Managing Director, eftsure Africa, a Know Your Payee™ (KYP) platform provider. “Too few senior managers view cybersecurity as a business problem and not just a technology problem. The reality is cybersecurity is very much a business consideration. CEOs and CFOs will eventually face critical questions such as: How much money do we spend on cybersecurity? Do we change key processes? How do we create awareness and change company culture? Do we put security ahead of operational functionality? What is the role of internal processes and staff on data security and integrity?”, he says. Mer adds that because cyber...
Tech

Cisco Study Reveals Top Cybersecurity Considerations for SMEs in 2021

Three Factors Highlighted as Crucial to Achieving Desired Security Outcomes: Enabling Business, Managing Risk and Operating Efficiently Cisco has published its 2021 SMB Security Outcomes Study, a derivative of Cisco’s flagship cybersecurity report, 2021 Security Outcomes Study, highlighting what SMB leaders are doing to thrive in today's ever-evolving threat landscape, as well as offering actionable insights on where they should focus their digitization, security planning and cyber defense efforts in the year ahead. The double-blind study is based on a survey of over 850 regional IT and security professionals from small (50 to 249 employees) and midsize (250 to 499 employees) organizations in 25 countries from the Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia (EMEAR).  The report examines how sec...
Tech

Telkom launches Africa’s first virtual card for transacting on WhatsApp

Ukheshe, Mastercard, Nedbank and Telkom collaborate to grow access to the digital economy with virtual product that enables secure e-commerce payments on phone Telkom has launched Africa’s first Mastercard virtual card for use on WhatsApp, enabling Telkom Pay customers to make e-commerce payments. This move is expected to empower millions of South Africans – even those without a bank account – to access the digital economy and transact online. Launched in 2020, Telkom Pay is a digital payments wallet that enables its users to make and receive payments using WhatsApp on their mobile phone. With the addition of the Mastercard virtual (non-plastic) card to the wallet, users can now make payments to local and global online merchants that accept Mastercard, including Uber and Netflix. Telkom ...
Ghana News, South Africa News, Tech

Implementation of cybersecurity and data protection law urgent across Africa

South Africa recently enacted cybersecurity law Darryl Bernstein, Partner and Head of Dispute Resolution, and Janet MacKenzie, Partner and Head of Technology, Media and Telecommunications,  Baker McKenzie Johannesburg The pandemic has driven home the high value of personal data to the global economy, while also highlighting its vulnerability to abuse and attack. In response, governments around the world have been reviewing their data privacy and protection laws and regulations, including in South Africa. Global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky recently noted that cyberattacks are set to rise in African countries, especially in the key financial centres of South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. The cybersecurity firm noted that rapidly evolving digital techniques had led to an increased risk of Advan...
Tech

Cisco Talos Finds Nearly 70% of Ransomware Attacks Result from Cybercrime Tools Widely Available for Purchase

Known as ‘Commodity Trojans’, ransomware attacks often available on the Dark Web are effective against systems with patching and endpoint vulnerabilities. Between late 2020 and early 2021, actors targeted industries including education, healthcare, energy and utilities, government, and more. Cisco Talos Incidence Response has been responding to a growing number of incidents involving the Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities from Hafnium and has engaged in several incident response engagements in which organizations unknowingly downloaded trojanized updates to the widely deployed SolarWinds.  For the seventh quarter in a row, Cisco Talos Incident Response (CTIR) has observed ransomware dominating the threat landscape. The top variants between November 2020 and January 2021 were Ryuk and ...
Business, Tech, Uganda News

Palletising Robots: Changing How Breweries Stack and Pack

Robotic automation enables remote support possibilities that significantly reduce downtime and address geographical constraints, says Yaskawa Southern Africa Managing Director, Andrew Crackett. Conventional palletisers have been around for over 50 years. While they continue to be operational in many factories around the world, their modern counterparts – robotic palletisers – are solving issues that seemed impossible before.  Whether it’s the need to conserve floorspace or to make workplaces safer and better regulated, robotic automation has numerous benefits that other technologies struggle to match in the long run. One of the most appealing factors is that it actually pushes factories towards a more innovative and forward-thinking future. At times, this doesn’t even require everyone to ...
African News, Agriculture, Fintech, Libya News, Mauritania, Morocco News, Startups, Tech, Tunisia News

Official launch of the second cycle of EMERGING Mediterranean – the springboard programme for emerging Mediterranean Tech For Good leaders

The call for applications is open to any startup based in Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia or Libya that has been operating for over 18 months in one of the following areas: e-health, climate, mobility, agritech, social economy and financial inclusion. As a result of the work done during the preparatory forums for the Summit of the Two Shores and with the support of the French Development Agency, EMERGING Mediterranean, created by Samir Abdelkrim in 2020, aims to increase the impact of Mediterranean startups that help their societies become more resilient. After the first year of the programme in 2020 underlined a strong demand for support from entrepreneurs in the Mediterranean, EMERGING Mediterranean is launching its second call for applications to identify, accelerate and publicise...
Tech

Driving Business And Economic Development In Africa Through Innovative Satellite-Based Connectivity

SES’s next-generation O3b mPOWER satellite communications system to launch in 2021 By Carole Kamaitha, SES Networks Vice President Sales, Africa Over 30% of the African population live in landlocked countries, many in remote rural areas. Millions of Africans therefore experience significant challenges with access to reliable connectivity every day. According to Northern Sky Research (NSR) countries in sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly connected to the mobile internet. However, in 2019, there were 520 million people that did not use mobile internet and another 270 million who did not live within the footprint of a mobile network. Simply put, better solutions are needed as the number of connected devices and demand for bandwidth-intensive applications continue to soar across the continent....
Science, Tech

A Kind of Magic – Cosmetics Packaging Without Microplastic Pollution

Sulapac has launched a ground-breaking innovation. Now, water-based products can be packaged with a new bio-based Sulapac barrier that biodegrades without leaving permanent microplastics behind The barrier is no longer an obstacle The beauty and personal care industry is worth over $500 billion a year and the market is expected to grow annually by 4.75%. Accordingly, the forerunners have eagerly been looking for sustainable packaging solutions. While around 90% of the cosmetics market consist of water-based emulsions, there has not been an alternative for water-based products that biodegrades without leaving permanent microplastics behind. Now, Sulapac has invented a patent-pending material for them. As well as being fully sustainable, the Sulapac barrier fits industry standard requiremen...