Ghana’s Float Acquires Nigeria’s Accounteer, Doubts Cast Over Elon Musk’s Twitter Bot Count, and Chinese Tech Firms Share Data with Government

Africa

Ghana’s Float acquires Nigeria’s Accounteer

Ghanaian cash flow startup, Float, has acquired Nigeria’s cloud-based accounting firm, Accounteer. Float had closed a $17 million seed round earlier in the year and will leverage Accounteer’s subscription-based services to improve its own offerings.

Togo to set up Cybersecurity Centre

Togo has signed an MoU with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to establish a Cybersecurity Centre in Lomé. The African Center for Coordination and Research in Cybersecurity will act to investigate cybercrime within the sub-region.

iProcure secures $10.2m in Series funding

AgriTech startup, iProcure, has closed a $10 million Series funding round led by Investisseurs & Partenaires, it has been reported. The Agric-inputs supplier will launch a credit line for million plus customers and expand into Uganda and Tanzania.

Europe

NHS supplier suffers ransomware attack

NHS IT supplier Advance has been hacked and its data held hostage, the BBC has reported. Advanced provides patient check-ins and other digital services to the health organisation.

Manx Care faces fine over breach

Manx Care is facing a GBP 170,000 fine over a breach that exposed user data unless it put stringent measures in place to avoid a future repeat. The Isle of Man’s Care Home had sent an insecure email containing private patient information to 1870 people.

Hackers target South Staffordshire Water

Hackers have targeted South Staffordshire PLC’s water company, the BBC has confirmed. While the company said it could still supply water as needed, it worried that its corporate IT systems were compromised.

The Americas

Calm cuts 20% of staff

Meditation app Calm has cut 20% of its staff as pandemic-triggered boom fades, it has been reported. Other tech startups are also under pressure to cut cost, with Peloton already axing 3,000 people.

Experts doubt Elon Musk’s Twitter bot claims

Elon Musk’s claim that 33% of visible Twitter accounts were bot and spam accounts has been questioned. The creator of Botometer, the app which Musk used to make his claim, said Musk’s methodology was questionable and that there were other indicators that needed to be applied before arriving at a conclusive figure.

WhatsApp lets you leave groups silently

New Meta updates will allow users to leave WhatsApp groups silently, a recent report has confirmed. Mark Zuckerberg confirmed the new changes adding that it improved privacy and maintained a secure chat experience.

Asia

Chinese tech giants share data with regulators

Chinese tech giants have shared algorithm data with Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) regulators for the first time, it has been reported. Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance are among companies who shared information with CAC.

Indians get Fifa 23 Ultimate Edition at 99.98% discount

Electronic Arts will honour a pricing error that allowed buyers on India’s Epic Games to purchase Fifa 23 Ultimate at less than a dollar. Ultimate Edition is the final Fifa-branded game produced by Electronic Arts.

Samsung heir receives presidential pardon

Lee-jae Young, the Samsung heir convicted of bribery, has received a special presidential pardon. The South Korean government justified the decision saying Young was needed at the country’s largest company to see to post-pandemic growth.