Nigeria to Regulate Social Media, Georgia Suffers Widespread Cyber-Attack, and Microsoft Wins $10b JEDI Contract

Africa

Nigeria to regulate social media

The Federal Government of Nigeria is planning to regulate social media according to multiple local reports. This was disclosed by Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, in a press conference in Abuja. Alhaji Mohammed fears social media was out of control and could set the country on fire. “It has reached a level that the government may just no longer fold its arms and allow this to continue,” the minister said. Alhaji Mohammed added that discussions were far-advanced and that there was no going back on this decision regardless of criticisms from the public. Meanwhile, a former Vice-President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Monday Ubani, said any regulation that stifled freedom of expression would be rejected by the people. “So, any law that is enacted that runs contrary to the provisions of the constitution would be declared null and void,” he said. Media houses that violated the broadcast codes would be severely dealt with, according to Alhaji Mohammed. He however said there would be enough room for responsible journalism. The exact nature of the new regulation is still unknown as lawmakers are yet to make the law public.

Twiga Foods receives $30 million in funding for food digitisation platform

Kenya’s Twiga Foods has received another $30 million in funding to expand its food digitisation platform, it has been reported. The Series B funding was led by Goldman Sachs with participation from existing investors. Twiga will be able to pursue rapid expansion while improving its existing intellectual infrastructure. “This funding enables us to invest in our technology and organization to tackle the inefficiencies in Africa’s domestic food production and distribution ecosystems,” Twiga’s CEO, Peter Njonjo, said. Twiga Foods provides an end-to-end distribution platform that links 8,000 retailers to 17,000 farmers and food producers.

Europe

Italy’s UniCredit suffers security breach

Italy’s UniCredit announced that it suffered a security breach that exposed data of some three million Italians, Reuters has reported. The attack came through the network of one of the bank’s third-party partner; the company hasn’t been named in the briefing. This is yet another security setback for Italy’s largest lender. In 2017, it announced a double system hack that compromised the data of about 400,000 customers. Since then, UniCredit said it had invested over €2 billion to bolster security at the company. “Since 2016, UniCredit has invested an additional 2.4 billion euros in upgrading and strengthening its IT systems and cyber security,” it announced. It is taking the latest breach seriously even though it assured that no compromising data was exposed during the breach and so ruled out potential of any unauthorized access. The bank has since initiated steps to rectify the situation by informing all relevant authorities.

Georgia suffers major cyber-attack

Georgia has suffered a major cyber-attack that has knocked about 2,000 websites offline and disrupted operations of its National TV station. Over 15,000 online pages including the presidential website, web pages of private organisations as well as those belonging to NGOs were targeted in the attack. Many web pages were replaced with images of Mikheil Saaskashvili, Georgia’s former president, with the slogan, “I’ll be back,” it has been reported. Irakli Chikhladze, head of Imedi TV station posted on social media that there was no signal at the station making it impossible to broadcast. Sources in the European country and beyond have linked the attack to Russia. “With the scale and the nature of the targets, it’s difficult not to conclude that this was a state-sponsored attack,” Prof Alan Woodward, a cyber-security expert at Surrey University said. Mr Saaskashvili who served as president between 2004 and 2013 is facing war crime charges in Georgia.

The Americas

Microsoft wins Pentagon’s $10b JEDI cloud contract

The Defense Department has announced that Microsoft Corp. edged out Amazon.com Inc. to win the Pentagon’s $10 billion JEDI cloud computing contract. JEDI, which stands for Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, is aimed at making Pentagon more technologically agile, a Reuters report said. It would offer US military better access to cloud services from wherever in the world they are deployed. The JEDI contract tendering process had been mired by allegations of conflict of interest. It even led to President Trump declaring an investigation into Amazon’s bid following complaints from other companies. Amazon has since asked questioned about the awarding of the contract. It indicated surprise at the awarding of the contract to Microsoft, and added that a “detailed assessment purely on the comparative offerings” would “clearly lead to a different conclusion.” Pentagon defended its choice. “All (offers) were treated fairly and evaluated consistently with the solicitation’s stated evaluation criteria. Prior to the award, the department conferred with the DOD Inspector General, which informed the decision to proceed,” it said in a statement.

Twitter bans political ads

Twitter has announced plans to ban all political ads on its platforms ahead of major elections around the world, Reuters has reported. The announcement was made on Twitter by CEO Jack Dorsey, saying, “We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought.” The move has drawn support from some Democrats and scorn from a number of Republicans, reports added. “We appreciate that Twitter recognizes that they should not permit disproven smears, like those from the Trump campaign, to appear in advertisements on their platform,” deputy communications director of the Biden campaign, Bill Russo, said. Trump’s re-election campaign described the move as a “a very dumb decision” and “an attempt to silence conservatives.” Meanwhile, US Senator Mark Warren wants more transparency from Facebook as it would continue to run political ads, Reuters has reported.

Asia

China wants emerging economies involved in digital currency regulations

China’s foreign exchange regulator says governments of emerging economies must have a large say in the drafting of regulations for digital currencies, Reuters has reported. This is because digital currencies would encourage illegal capital flows that could disrupt foreign exchange policies in those countries. Since Facebook announced plans to launch its Libra currency, governments have questioned its impact on national monetary policies. China completely agrees with the benefits of financial technology and is planning to introduce its own digital currency. But it also fears the negative repercussions of anonymous transfers that would be impossible for governments to track. “But it [financial technology] could also bring a lot of illegal cross-border financial activities. This should be a matter of great concern to all countries, especially emerging markets,” the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said.

China to launch 5G on Friday

China’s state telecoms operators have announced plans to rollout 5G mobile phone services on 1^st November, it has been reported. The telecoms operators, China Unicom, China Mobile, and China Telecom, made the announcements on their respective websites. China had planned to launch its 5G network in 2020. However, tensions with the United States of America over the boycott of Huawei caused China to bring its launch forward. 50 Chinese cities will have about 50,000 5G base stations by the close of the year. “China will have the largest commercial operating 5G network in the world on Friday, and the scale of its network and the price of its 5G services will have a pivotal impact throughout the supply chain,” a Bernstein report said about the announcement.