Angola Cables and rest of Angolan telecoms industry to be privatised Angola’s official journal, the Diario da Republica has announced that under the Privatisation Programme, the Angolan government is to sell stakes in 195 companies. The telecommunication companies that will be included in the Privatisation Programme are Unitel (in which MSTelecom has a 20% stake), MS Telecom itself, Net One, Multitel, Angola Telecom, TV Cabo Angola, Angola Cables, Angolan postal company ENCTA, Angola Comunicacoes e Sistemas (ACS) and telephone directory company ELTA. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y5aw5r9y Google Accounts now let Android web users authenticate themselves with their fingerprint Google now allows Android phone users to sign into some of its services without a password. The users will verify their identity with a fingerprint only, which makes authentication more secure and easier. This feature is built by using open authentication standards FIDO2, FIDO CTAP and WebAuthn. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/yy272mwn Verizon…
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced the adoption of new rules banning malicious caller ID spoofing of text messages and foreign robocalls. The new regulations will allow the US federal government to carry out enforcement action against foreign businesses involved in deliberate spoofing, thus closing “a loophole in the law that prevented the agency from pursuing scammers sending spoofed text messages and international fraudsters making spoofed calls to Americans.” According to the announcement, this resolution is the further implementation of amendments to the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 that “prohibits anyone from causing a caller ID service to knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information (“spoofing”) with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongly obtain anything of value.” These rules have been put in place to counteract scammers operating in overseas call centers who often pretend to be calling from reliable companies. They use…
Trinity Cyber, a Bowie, Maryland-based cybersecurity services and solutions startup, has announced the completion of a $23 million funding round led by Intel Capital and other top institutional investors. The company claims that it is taking an entirely new approach to cybersecurity and, with the help of its new technology known as Proactive Threat Interference, is able to “proactively intercept and control cyberattacks” before they even reach the target’s network, thus “reducing risk and increasing cost to adversaries.” Steve Ryan, CEO of Trinity Cyber, said, “This investment by Intel Capital and other strategic backers is significant. I co-founded Trinity Cyber to transform the way the world addresses the cyber problem. No one is doing what Trinity Cyber is doing. No one else can. We make the adversary fail, and we feel this strategic support validates the elegance of our solution.” “As cyberattacks become more sophisticated, technology to counter…
FIX Network, an innovative technology company from Vilnius, Lithuania, has developed a new two-factor authentication (2FA) SIM card and app for protecting mobile data and digital identities. The ultimate goal of the company is to provide comprehensive blockchain-based solutions for mobile devices, enabling subscribers to secure their digital assets and identities by safekeeping private keys on their SIM cards. However, due to the urgent and immediate requirement of securing phone numbers – which may be considered to be the most valuable digital identities – FIX Network will provide a free-to-use 2FA application, together with newly issued and truly subscriber-owned phone numbers that will serve as secure and global digital identities. These numbers will be fully controlled by the subscriber, preventing unauthorized porting or malicious hijacking of the phone number. This 2FA solution will also include the practical ability to recover access to digital identities through user-defined policies that include…
NowSecure, a Chicago-based mobile security startup that helps businesses test the safety of their applications, has raised USD 15 million in a Series B round led by ForgePoint Capital, a fund that invests exclusively in cybersecurity companies. As a result of this round, the total amount of NowSecure funding to date is USD 27 million. The funding comes as cybersecurity threats remain a constant and high priority issue for businesses, and NowSecure said it will use this money to accelerate the development of its security testing products and scale operations. NowSecure CEO Alan Snyder said, “Every business is becoming mobile first; yet millions of people are using apps on a daily basis that have major security and privacy issues. NowSecure is addressing this fundamental, global-scale problem that puts businesses and consumers at direct risk. We’re thrilled to be working with ForgePoint Capital to grow our business and empower mobile app…
Telecommunications giant AT&T and Colt Technology Services, a provider of network, voice, data centre and managed cloud services, have successfully completed the integration of MEF’s Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) Sonata Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow business customers to virtually seamlessly order services across multiple carriers. The two companies claim to be the first in the telecom industry to use MEF’s LSO Sonata APIs to automate the ordering of Ethernet services. Roman Pacewicz, Chief product officer, AT&T Business, said, “There’s no doubt this will change how carriers interact and operate in the industry. Our interactions are now more cost-efficient, flexible and error-free. We kicked off interoperability discussions and trials three years ago and gained important insights that will help create and refine industry standards under the guidance of MEF. The transformation of networks to a dynamic, on-demand, software-centric, cloud-based model opens up opportunities for everyone.” The implementation of the…
Juniper Network, a provider of high-performance networking and cybersecurity solutions, has been selected by the UK’s telecoms giant British Telecommunications (BT) to deliver its Network Cloud infrastructure initiative. This arrangement will help support the rollout of BT’s upcoming unified cloud networking platform, which will integrate the company’s networks, including 5G, Wi-Fi and fixed-line, into one virtualized service and enable more efficient infrastructure management and implementation. This new and more flexible network infrastructure will also generate a range of innovative applications that support services such as Internet access, TV and business network functions, improved voice and video delivery, and scalability. The Network Cloud platform will be built according to a common framework, and shared across BT’s offices throughout the UK and globally. “This move to a single cloud-driven network infrastructure will enable BT to offer a wider range of services, faster and more efficiently to customers in the UK…
The American chipset manufacturer Nvidia is rolling out its EGX platform to bring real-time artificial intelligence (AI) to the edge of the network. Nvidia EGX is an accelerated computing platform, which boasts low-latency AI that enables companies to perceive, understand and act in real time on continuous streaming data between 5G base stations, warehouses, retail stores, factories and beyond. AI computing will occur at the edge of the network, where sensors collect data before it is sent to cloud-connected data centers. This platform is expected to satisfy the increasing demand for AI applications to assist numerous devices streaming continuous raw sensor data and is designed for high-throughput AI at the edge where data is primarily sourced to achieve instantaneous and guaranteed response times while reducing bandwidth to the cloud. According to the company, by 2025, there could be up to 150 billion machine sensors and the Internet of Things (IoT) devices streaming…
The Chinese telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology and equipment provider ZTE Corporation has launched its first domestic cybersecurity lab in Nanjing, China, thus confirming its commitment to the ICT industry to counter cybersecurity threats. The company is also planning to expand across the globe with similar facilities in the near future, with the first installations being in Italy and Belgium. According to a statement by ZTE, the opening of a new lab represents an important milestone for the company as it aims to increase transparency and enhance trust with third parties, including customers, global regulators and other stakeholders. This initiative is in direct response to the national security concerns that are prompting several countries to apply restrictions on the use of equipment from Chinese vendors in 5G rollouts. Zhong Hong, Chief Security Officer at ZTE, said, “The security lab is an open and cooperative platform for the industry.…
China’s Huawei Technologies has launched new database and storage products with the aim of redefining its data infrastructure and strengthening the global presence of its cloud business. The world’s first AI-native database GaussDB supports differentiated scenarios such as private and public clouds and data services in the finance, internet, logistics and automotive sectors. Huawei’s FusionStorage 8.0 is claimed to be the industry’s best-performing distributed storage solution for supporting enterprise applications. “Humanity is entering the age of an intelligent world,” said David Wang, Huawei Executive Director of the Board and President of ICT Strategy and Marketing. “Data is the new factor of production, and intelligence the new productivity. Heterogeneous, intelligent, and converged databases will become the key data infrastructure of the financial, government, and telecoms industries.” With this new database management product, the Shenzhen-based company marks its official entry into the database field and places itself in direct competition with…