Ghana, Israel Sign MoU to Fight Cybercrime, Dutch University Paid Ransomware Hackers, and Coronavirus Threatening Tech Start-up Growth

Africa

Zipline to start delivery to the north by end of February

Zipline will start delivering medical supplies to the Savannah, Northern, Upper East, and North East Regions by the end of February, it has been reported. “Our service coverage is about 80 kilometres and by air, if you are going 80 kilometres, you go the shortest distance between here and your destination,” Simon Batamya Aseno, community lead at Zipline said. Zipline was contracted by the Ghana government to supply essential medical supplies using drone technology after its successful operations in Rwanda earned it worldwide applause. The company started operations in Ghana in 2019.

Ghana signs MoU with Israel to fight Cybercrime

Ghana has signed two agreements with the State of Israel to boost cooperation and to strengthen cybersecurity between the two nations, it has been revealed. The agreement was signed during the three-day CyberTech Global 2020 conference by Ghana’s Ministry of Communications on the one side, and the Israeli government as well as the Israel National Cyber Directorate on the other side. Ghana’s communications minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekufful, said the MoU “…provides opportunities for capacity-building which will complement the work that the Government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Communications, has already started in the field of Cyber Security.”

Europe

UK telecom get green light on moon mission

A UK private telecoms operator, SSTL, has received green light to produce a telecommunications spacecraft for the moon, a BBC report has said. The platform will allow the relay of data from all lunar missions back to Earth, the report explained. A similar platform exists on Mars which allows rovers to send information back to scientists on earth. While SSTL will finance the construction of the platform, it will sell its telecoms services to interested users through a contract with the European Space Agency. The satellite will be placed in high orbit in order to have longer periods of coverage over the lunar south pole where future landings are expected to take place.

University of Maastricht paid ransomware hackers

The University of Maastricht revealed that it paid hackers the equivalent of 30 bitcoins in ransom to unblock its computers, Reuters has reported. The ransom amounted to some $220,000 at the time it was paid in December, 2019. The university said it decided to pay the ransom because building the entire IT infrastructure from scratch would have been more expensive. “The damage of that to the work of the students, scientists, staff, as well as the continuity of the institution, can scarcely be conceived,” vice president Nick Bos added. Due to the high number of cyberattacks in 2019, insurers have reportedly increased their premiums to match the risks involved.

The Americas

Google apologises for sharing private videos

Google has apologised after a bug in one of its applications shared users’ private videos with the public by mistake, a BBC report has said. The bug affected Google Takeout, which allows users of Google Photo to export their content; the bug remained in the background for up to four days in November 2019, according to the reports. “We fixed the underlying issue and have conducted an in-depth analysis to help prevent this from ever happening again. We are very sorry this happened,” Google said in a statement. It added that the bug only affected videos and that no personal data was affected.

State actors might have accessed user data on Twitter

Twitter announced that hackers working for governments could have had access to private data of users after exploiting a flaw in the contacts upload feature, according to a BBC report. The feature makes it easy to connect with someone on Twitter if you already have the person’s phone number. A security analyst had found a flaw in the Twitter contacts upload feature in December that made it possible to see the contact details of senior politicians. TechCrunch announced that the researcher, Ibrahim Balic, was able to match 17 million Twitter users to their phone numbers. At the same time, Twitter reportedly received a high volume of requests for that feature from Israel, Iran, and Malaysia. “It is possible that some of these IP addresses may have ties to state-sponsored actors. We are disclosing this out of an abundance of caution and as a matter of principle,” Twitter said in a statement. The flaw has since been fixed.

Asia

Intel banks on smart buildings in Israel

Intel is banking on smart buildings in order to attract top talent in Israel, it has been revealed. The company plans to invest some $11 billion in a manufacturing plant in the country. While Israel has an active start-up economy, it suffers a shortage of skilled workers. Intel hopes its investment in smarter workplaces would attract more people to fill up its vacancies. The office buildings will be filled with perks like smart gyms, massage parlours, as well as thousands of motion, light, and air sensors that would make up an environmentally-friendly space.

Coronavirus affecting growth of tech start-ups

The coronavirus outbreak is causing significant strain on Chinese start-ups, a recent report on Tech News Asia has revealed. While large corporations are able to provide off-site facilities, many of the smaller companies would have to rely solely on their own cash flows to survive. Start-ups in the tourism sectors will be severely hit as people are encouraged to stay indoors and reduce contact with strangers. Food delivery start-ups also face similar challenges as clients now question the origin of food supplies and the conditions under which foods were prepared. While this could end up drying up investor funding, the report claims online businesses that require fewer human interactions could enjoy a boon as investors look for low-risk alternatives.