Technology
FBNQuest Advises Firms What to do to Manage Rising Cyber-Attacks
By Adedapo Adesanya
As Africa faces the threat of rising cybercrimes, FBNQuest, through its Thought Leadership medium, has called on the need to recognise the strategic importance of managing companies’ security infrastructure.
In a note made available to Business Post, it stated that organisations of all sizes should be looking at what to do when (not if) they are hit by cyber-attacks.
Cybercrime is estimated to cost Africa $4 billion a year (a figure that hits $450 billion worldwide), broken down into yearly losses of $570 million, $500 million, and $36 million for the economies of South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, respectively.
Drawing real-life parallels, in early October 2020, Uganda’s telecoms and banking sectors were plunged into a crisis in the wake of a major hack on Pegasus Technologies that compromised the country’s mobile money network.
Hackers used approximately 2,000 mobile SIM cards to gain access to the system, and an estimated $3.2 million was stolen.
In June 2020, the second-largest hospital operator in South Africa, Life Healthcare, was hit by a cyberattack in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, paralysing the 6,500-bed provider and forcing it to switch to manual backup systems.
As per the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol), the most prominent threats in Africa, based on input from Interpol member countries and data drawn from private sector partners, identified that the top five threats listed in the report include online scams, digital extortion, email account compromise, ransomware, and botnets.
FBNQuest noted that “the current international threat landscape is incredibly diverse and includes a resurgence of bored teenagers who hack just for the fun of it, nation-state groups, and cybercriminal syndicates and gangs. For the latter groups, the operational objective is to leverage a new exploit to extort millions and achieve an extraordinary return on investment.”
It then tasked organisations to apply the fundamentals of cybersecurity that will offer protection. This includes tightening the email loop, which makes it difficult to fall for phishing attacks.
Others include fending off malicious ransomware, securing network access, shutting down internal threats, solidifying storage and backups, as well as managing vulnerabilities, noting that, “The key to successful vulnerability management is to identify all the ways an attacker can move throughout your network and reach your business-critical assets. Once you have identified these attack paths, you can focus on locking down chokepoints and stopping hackers before they even get started.”
It also tasked parties to ensure that a detailed Incident Response Plan (IRP) is put in place.
“Cyberattacks may be inevitable, but a detailed Incident Response Plan (IRP) provides both a buffer and an antidote if the plan is tested. This means that the first time to verify an IRP is not in the middle of a crisis.
“The best way to determine whether the company’s IRP is effective is through tests that assess the readiness of their incident response teams. These tests, which work for all-size companies, come in the form of fire drills and tabletop exercises (TTXs). Each test serves a different purpose.”
The company noted that while cyber-security has been largely associated with computers and IT infrastructure, greater consumer use of smart devices has raised overall vulnerability. At the enterprise level, shifting to cloud computing may have cut company costs significantly, but it has also increased the risk of digital attacks.
“Despite the broad-based implications of these risks, many businesses are unprepared to deal with them, as the alarming number of threats clearly indicates. These developments imply that security is no longer merely a concern of IT managers, but a key boardroom topic because enterprises need to recognise its strategic importance. Companies need to beef up their security infrastructure to prevent breaches while simultaneously building a sustained organisational culture of safety,” it warned.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Cloudflare Incorporated, a business providing cloud-based services to various enterprises, said in a note on Friday it is investigating issues with its Dashboard and related Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
Numerous companies and services, including payments platform like OPay as well as Canva, Coinbase Global Incorporated, Investing.com , Shopify Incorporated, and Zoom Video Communications Incorporated, all appeared to crash, with some seeing “500 internal server error” and “Please check your internet connection and try again”.
The global outage has left many users unable to access these key services as this disruption has not only affected individuals but also businesses relying on these platforms for their operations.
Customers using the Dashboard or Cloudflare APIs are impacted as requests might fail and errors may be displayed, the company said on its status page.
In its latest update, Cloudflare added that “a fix has been implemented,” with the firm monitoring the results.
Users from all over the world have taken to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to voice their frustrations over the issue.
This is Cloudflare’s second major disruption in nearly a month, following another incident in November that affected services like Spotify and ChatGPT.
At the last outage, Cloudflare’s services were largely restored within three hours, and fully restored after approximately five hours.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
As part of broader Africa-focused Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiatives, Google has launched the AI Skilling Blueprint for Africa, designed to help governments build a future-proof workforce.
The programme provides governments with a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to formulate national skilling strategies. It focuses on developing three critical cohorts: AI Learners, who will gain foundational AI literacy; AI Implementers, professionals upskilled to integrate AI tools into their work; and AI Innovators, deep technical experts dedicated to building the next generation of AI solutions.
Africa is home to the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. The continent shows immense potential for AI-driven economic growth.
However, new research highlights a significant challenge: while optimism for AI is exceptionally high, reaching 95 per cent in Nigeria and 76 per cent in South Africa, 55 per cent of firms across the continent report needing AI talent more than financing. Closing this skills gap is key to unlocking Africa’s opportunity.
Google’s Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy, Doron Avni, explained that, “The AI Skilling Blueprint provides a clear roadmap for governments to build the workforce of the future.
“By also investing in AI-ready data and expert local organisations and partners, we are helping build the interconnected ecosystem needed for a prosperous, AI-driven future for the continent.”
As part of its broader initiatives, Google also announced $2.25 million to support projects building trustworthy public data sets for AI by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and PARIS21.
This contribution will help national statistical offices modernize their infrastructure and empower decision-makers with the reliable data they need to address challenges from food security to economic growth.
“For Africa to drive sustainable development, evidence-based policymaking is indispensable. This requires accessible, reliable, and AI-ready data.
“This effort is a crucial step forward. By building a Regional Data Commons, we can empower African institutions with the data and tools they need to make strategic choices that will drive growth and prosperity,” the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Claver Gatete, said.
Finally, building on its $7.5 million Google.org Skilling Fund commitment, Google announced the first set of expert social impact organizations who will receive funding to execute on projects consistent with its skilling mission, including FATE Foundation and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), which will embed advanced AI curricula into universities; and JA Africa and CyberSafe Foundation, which will advance crucial work in online safety and digital literacy.
“We are incredibly proud to partner with the African Institute of Management Sciences on the Advanced AI UpSkilling Project, with support from Google.org. This groundbreaking initiative is a direct response to the urgent need for deep AI competencies in Africa, empowering tertiary institutions, lecturers, and students in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa.
“This strategic support aligns perfectly with FATE Foundation’s mission to foster innovation and sustainable economic growth across the continent, ensuring Africa is fully equipped to lead in the global technological future,” the Executive Director for FATE Foundation, Adenike Adeyemi, stated.
“We live in an age defined by rapid technological change and our mission at JA Africa is to ensure that African youth are not left behind. However, even as we engage our youth in more digital programs and encourage AI literacy, we are fully aware of the harmful effects of unchecked online exposure and, therefore, invest equally in protecting their data, physical safety and mental wellbeing.
“Through this support from Google.org, we will give young people the tools, knowledge, and confidence they need to navigate the digital world safely and responsibly,” the chief executive of Junior Achievement Africa, Simi Nwogugu, remarked.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Global technology firm, Zoho, has enhanced its all-in-one business software platform known as Zoho One with improve security, and deeper intelligence across all over 50 applications.
The company improved the user interface, placing context at the centre of the user journey and removes traditional boundaries between applications.
Spaces now organise tools by purpose—such as Personal, Organisation, and Department-specific groups—enabling employees to access what they need without switching between apps. A centralised search bar spans the entire ecosystem, allowing users to find information or trigger workflows instantly.
An enhanced Action Panel provides a full view of upcoming meetings, unread messages, pending tasks, and other key updates, helping employees remain informed regardless of which app they are using.
The updated Dashboard consolidates data from Zoho and third-party apps into one central hub that can be customised using pre-existing or bespoke widgets.
The platform also introduced Vani, a new visual-first collaboration space that supports brainstorming, planning, and creation through diagrams, whiteboards, mind maps, and integrated video calling.
A central integrations panel enables administrators to monitor and configure all connections. Foundational integrations bring application-specific portals—Zoho or third-party—into a single unified portal. Practical tasks such as domain verification and authentication can now be configured more easily.
The new Smart Offboarding feature introduces outcome-based integrations, allowing organisations to transfer department ownership, manage employee device data, and determine data access rights within a single workflow, ensuring smooth transitions.
Also, Zia, Zoho’s AI assistant, is now accessible throughout Zoho One, providing unified intelligence that supports decision-making and improves productivity. Zia can aggregate and contextualise information from various platforms, including third-party systems such as Google Workspace, and present it as clear, actionable insight.
Zia Hubs, the platform’s intelligent content management system, now has a dedicated space where contracts, meeting recordings, and other important assets are automatically organised. Through Zia Search, employees can quickly surface relevant information without navigating multiple locations.
In addition, Ask Zia, available from the bottom toolbar, enables prompt-based searches across Zoho One, providing quick visibility into schedules, tasks, recent interactions, and other key details.
Commenting on the changes, the Country Head for Zoho Nigeria, Mr Kehinde Ogundare, said, “The Zoho One update reflects how work has evolved from using individual applications to operating within a unified platform.
“Zoho One customers are not simply licensing apps; they are choosing a solution that allows Zoho to handle the technology while they focus on productivity. The enhancements announced today deliver a cohesive experience built on unified integrations, context, and data.”
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