Having grown in influence and impact, it is evident that Bitcoin could rank as the world’s largest financial institution if it were a normal bank with a market capitalization of $169.01 billion, says a new report from Buy Shares, a data company. This is because Bitcoin has continued to lead the cryptocurrency sector towards mainstream adoption on a global scale by directly competing with traditional players like banks. The asset’s high cap correlates with its impressive 27.18% ROI on a Year-to-Date basis.
From the data collected by Buy Shares, JP Morgan Chase’s cap of $433.5 billion makes it the biggest bank in the world while Bank of America with a market cap of $306 billion is ranked second. And ICBC ranks third with a capitalization of $290.9 billion followed by China Construction Bank with a cap of $218.4 billion.
Wells Fargo is the fifth-largest bank globally with a market cap of just $35.3 billion more than Bitcoin’s. Other banks ranked higher in the market cap above Bitcoin are Agricultural Bank of China and Citigroup at $178.8 billion and $171.5 billion respectively.
Bitcoin’s current market cap has surpassed other major banks like HSBC that currently enjoys a cap of $157.5 billion. Other banks with lower market cap than Bitcoin include The Bank of China’s ($146.6 billion), China Merchants Banks ($137.7 billion), Royal Bank of Canada ($116.6 billion), HDFC Bank Limited ($112.7 billion), Toronto Dominion Bank ($103.3 billion), Commonwealth Bank of Australia ($101.6 billion), and Morgan Stanley ($93.09 billion).
Compared to the stocks of major banks, Bitcoin holds a positive Return of Investment based on Year-to-Date overview. Bitcoin has an ROI of 27.18% with China Construction Bank Corporation coming second with an ROI of 2.52%. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has returns of 19.5%. JP Morgan Chase has an ROI of -29.58% followed by Bank of America’s -34.07% while Wells Fargo has the worst returns at -53.62%.
From the ROI review, Bitcoin has remained resilient against all odds. Tthe Buy Shares research report reads, “in the first and second quarters of this year, the coronavirus pandemic wrecked the global economy leading to the crumbling of most stocks. Major stocks ROI has been in the red zone but Bitcoin appears not to have been impacted greatly. Largely, Bitcoin has remained resilient throughout this season despite occasional tumbling attributed to fear to spread from traditional markets”.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
South African consumers are in for a very exciting shopping experience if claims by Vodacom and Alipay on the creation of a new Super-App are anything to go by. This is because the new super app that’ll allow South African consumers to manage their entire lives and business through their smartphone, and this encompases playing music, paying for morning coffees, listening to podcasts, sending money to family, paying utility bills, shopping online and ordering new stock for their businesses.
Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO
According to the companies, the app will not only offer a stellar digital customer experience but will also bring to life a market place of goods and services tailored to the South African customer needs. This will be underpinned by a progressive digital payments ecosystem designed to serve both the banked and unbanked parts of the population.Customers and merchants will all find each other on one affordable platform, operated by Vodacom Financial Services, with Alipay as the technology provider.
Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO said that the partnership is a significant milestone in promoting greater financial inclusion within the communities in which we operate, accelerating our financial services aspirations across Africa, adding that “this technology partnership with Alipay will enable us to be on par with leading global digital counterparts quicker and more efficiently. We see this as an excellent opportunity for us to reinvent the mobile fintech ecosystem for both consumers and merchants in South Africa and we look forward to achieving this by working with Alipay.”
Alipay is owned and operated by the Ant Group, an innovative global technology provider. As of June 30, 2019, Alipay serves more than 1.2 billion users worldwide together with its global e-wallet partners. Guoming Cheng, Head of Global Payment Partnerships at Ant Group, says, “Alipay seeks to work with like-minded partners around the world, to bring innovative and inclusive digital daily life services to consumers and small businesses globally. Vodacom Financial Services’ aim is to better serve customers and merchants in South Africa through digital technology, and we look forward to working with them to achieve this”.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
The Great Lockdown has opened the door to existing inequalities within the ICT industry especially in the area of cybersecurity. A new report released by Cybersecurity Ventures shows that women represent around 20% of the global cybersecurity workforce, and this is coming just two years after Frost & Sullivan pointed a menacing finger at the 1.8 million vacant cybersecurity seats by 2020 and the dearth of skills and people within an incredibly critical industry. There is a lack of female representation within this industry and a lack of actual skills needed to populate the growing number of requirements from organisations facing a rising cyber threat.
Anna Collard, MD of KnowBe4 Africa
The answer, according to Anna Collard, MD of KnowBe4 Africa, is to encourage women to cross-skill and expand into cybersecurity roles and to make the industry more welcoming as a whole. “Cybersecurity isn’t just ones and zeros, it’s the people factor, it understands the nuances of business and the value of technology and being capable of managing multiple threads at the same time,” she adds, noting that “It can be project and people management, ethical hacking, coding as well as the ability to problem solve at speed. The industry is incredibly nuanced and this is what needs to be communicated to the next generation of cybersecurity professionals regardless of gender or education.”
This is not to say that women can’t dig themselves deep into technology, they obviously can. But Collard points out that cybersecurity has been made to feel more complicated than it actually is. Anyone can walk into this industry; all they need is a hunger for continuous learning. “Women need to see that taking on a role within cybersecurity is exciting, challenging and interesting. I certainly didn’t realise how varied and dynamic this space was until I fell into it, by accident. I studied International Economics and now I am the Managing Director of a company that’s dedicated to cybersecurity awareness training and development.”
Collard’s road from a student in Munich, learning about economics, interning in Singapore to the founder of a cybersecurity firm in South Africa wasn’t straight, but it was led by opportunity, mentorship and grit. People in the industry recognising the value that she added and how her skills could translate into cybersecurity. And this is key to changing the chromosome dynamic in this industry – providing women with the opportunity to expand their skills and explore new areas that previously they didn’t think were in their remit.
“I firmly believe in two things – mentorship and online resources,” says Collard. “Mentorship is critical to giving people, not just women, the confidence they need to explore this industry and the variety that it offers. Even more importantly, you can teach yourself whatever you need to know using online resources. I think that if a woman can teach herself how to make smoky eyes on YouTube, she can easily learn how to do anything in security. Anything.”
Collard has a point. Many professionals supplement their industry understanding with courses and research provided online. In fact, continuous professional development and a relentless curiosity are two key qualities that define a successful cybersecurity professional, no matter where they stand in the field.
“When I first started out, I did feel inferior to some of my male colleagues who had heavy tech backgrounds,” concludes Collard. “Then, I tapped into them as a resource and used their vast understanding and insight to help me upskilling myself. With their guidance and my own creative tendencies, I was able to see the bigger picture and develop a cybersecurity career that has seen me grow, and sell, my own cybersecurity business. This is an incredibly interesting and diverse industry where anyone open to learning can find a foothold, we just need to show them how.”
To fill the growing gaps in cybersecurity skills development and to improve gender diversity, the industry needs to demystify its perceived complexity and scrub away the sense that this is a male-dominated domain. This approach will not only help improve the imbalances in gender diversity but it will ignite an interest in the industry as a whole, filling in those gaping skill holes with much-needed talent from across all areas of business and market.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Four Nigerians were among the 12 Africans selected as leaders to join the Facebook Community Accelerator, a six-month programme that aims to equip communities with the training, mentorship and funding they need to grow. The Community Accelerator Programme is part of the global Facebook Community Leadership initiative which was launched in 2018, and it invests in leaders who are building communities around the world; including bringing people together, offering encouragement, and driving change.
Hauwa Ojeifo, of She Writes Woman in Nigeria
Awarding up to $3 million, selected community leaders will receive up to $30,000 in funding. In the first three months of the programme, these leaders will learn from experts and coaches, whilst developing customized curriculums focused on growing their own communities.
The following three months will then be focused on iterating and executing their plans, with funding and continued support from their network, as well as from a dedicated programme team. The Community Accelerator will then culminate in an event with community leaders to showcase their communities and progress to external funders and partners.
Community leaders selected from across Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa as part of the Facebook Community Accelerator includes Hauwa Ojeifo, of She Writes Woman in Nigeria. In 2016, Hauwa created “Safe Place Nigeria” to provide a stigma and judgment-free space for young people to talk about mental health-related issues. It has become a community for young people to learn, feel connected, get support and feel a sense of belonging. Also selected is Kenya’s Bright Shiitemii of Mental360 a platform founded in 2016 to give youth a safe platform to learn about mental health and illness and to access affordable holistic solutions. It is a non-partisan non-discriminatory space where youth can grow their emotional wellness, grow their network and get peer support
Others are South Africa’s Lauren Dallas who founded Future Females in 2017 with a mission to increase the number of female entrepreneurs and support their success. They have become the go-to destination for aspiring and early-stage female entrepreneurs to receive the inspiration, education and support needed to build profitable businesses online. Also picked is Nigeria’s Tony Onuk of the Root Hub, started in 2014 to provide a safe space for youths to build their ideas, grow their businesses, and access support while Kenya’s Esther Mwikalii who established Metta NBO in 2015 as an entrepreneurs’ network with the goal of bringing together founders, policymakers and investors to collaborate was also selected.
South Africa’s Refilwe Nkomo who founded Visual Arts Network in South Africa in 2007 as a support point and development agency for contemporary art practice in South Africa. It aspires to be a dynamic and resilient network-based organisation contributing to growth, innovation and opportunities in the arts equally made the cut. And joining them will be Nigeria’s Eyitayo Ogunmola who established Utiva as a decentralized ecosystem that helps Nigerians access technology skills and trainings regardless of their location and internet barrier.
Naadiya Moosajee of WomEng in South Africa formed the organization as a social enterprise aimed at attracting, developing and nurturing the next generation of women engineering leaders while Nigeria’s Abiodun Adereni established Helpmum in 2017 to tackle maternal and infant mortality in remote rural areas in Nigeria, and provides Clean Birth Kits for hygienic delivery to pregnant women, immunization reminders and health information to nursing mothers.
South Africa’s Dillion Phiri, the founder of Creative Nestlings , a platform to connect young African creatives to each other, to opportunities and to resources, democratizing how young African creatives connect, get paid, learn and grow was equally tapped, same as another compatriot, Rufaro Mudimu of Enke (“enke”, meaning ‘ink’ in SeTswana), started in 2009 to bridge socioeconomic inequality by bringing young people together and equipping them with the skills and experiences to improve their lives. “enke” connects, equips and inspires young people to make their mark, authoring a positive future for themselves and their communities. The last but not the least is Tariro Bure also of South Africa, whose organisation MINDS was founded in 2010 as a platform rooted in cultural heritage and knowledge systems for youth to reclaim their African identities and transform the continent. It has become a movement of youth and crucial stakeholders which aspires to shape policy, foster economic development, and enhance the evolution of African institutions.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
If Africa will rise to take its place as the world’s most arable continent, efforts to restore the fast degrading forestry and ensure a sustainable utilization of forestry resources is imperative. This is the mission behind Komaza, a tech-enabled, sustainable forestry startup focusing on ways to help restore wasted lands in the continent. To this end, Komaza has secured a first close of $28m of the company’s planned $33m Series B equity financing to plant one billion trees by 2030, benefiting over 2 million farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and doubling existing tree cover across all operating landscapes.
Tevis Howard, Komaza’s Founder and CEO
Komaza says the Series A was co-led by Novastar LPs AXA Investment Managers through the AXA Impact Fund: Climate & Biodiversity, and the Dutch development bank FMO, with further participation by Mirova’s Land Degradation Neutrality Fund. According to Tevis Howard, Komaza’s Founder and CEO, “At Komaza, our vision is to become Africa’s largest forestry company, by partnering with farmers to provide a sustainable and hyper-scalable domestic supply of wood. As a result, farmers get a climate-resilient, zero-risk, source of wealth creation for their families, and investors get commercial returns, all while relieving the intense pressure on remaining natural forests.”
The Kenya-based company has planted over 6 million trees with 25,000 smallholder farmers to date, with annual plantings nearly doubling Kenya’s rate of commercial tree planting. Komaza’s “microforestry” model represents a paradigm shift in the industry from large, costly plantations to distributed partnerships with local farmers. This shift yields an 80% cost disruption vs traditional plantations for every acre planted, while unlocking dramatically more land for forestry activities, especially those held by farmers around major cities.
While distributed operations increase management complexity, Komaza has tackled these planning and coordination challenges using AI and satellite data to map existing tree growth and real-time mobile apps on the ground to track farmer progress.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
African users of Facebook social networking app have been warned to beware of a new Malware that pose a threat to their privacy on the app. According to the anti-fraud firm, Evina, a certain malware uses javascript to retrieve the login credentials of Facebook users. The company confirms that social media users in Africa are amongst those who have been targeted. This malware launches a browser that loads Facebook at the same time a mobile user is trying to open the platform – by displaying in the foreground; the user believes the fraudulent browser is legitimate. Malware and ransomware that targets hundreds of millions of mobile users worldwide can have devastating personal, productivity and financial consequences.
Evina’s CEO David Lotfi
Warning users of the threat of this Malware, Evina’s CEO David Lotfi said that this new malware is particularly dangerous as it could effectively ruin your online and offline life by making off with the credentials of one of your most valued pieces of digital real estate. Adding that “worse still, it is embedded in a whole range of applications commonly available for app store download and these include everything from flashlight to wallpaper, pedometer, file manager and video maker apps.”
Internet-based fraud has become so pervasive that sometimes it seems as if everyone you meet has, at some time or another, been a victim of digital fraud.
“Fraudsters are everywhere and they are not confined to the DCB sector. Let’s remember once again that victims are not culprits. The app developer, the app store and all other legitimate players involved are simply innocent victims of fraudsters and their malware. Fortunately, firms like Evina exist to take the battle to the fraudsters themselves,” concludes Lotfi.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Keeping up with innovation is driving global tech firm Google to update its apps and introducing new programs. This according to the company is responsible for the rolling out of the Dark Mode on G-Guite Apps across Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps on Android. According to the company, the new theme will “intelligently adjust the product interface and user-generated content in ways that can make it more usable in low-light environments and save battery life”.
The new theme, which is expected to roll out to all users within the next two weeks, will come about automatically for users who’s Android system is already set to use dark mode.
But Google says that users can also turn dark mode on or off for Docs, Sheets, or Slides independently – and if users do this, each app will always be in the selected theme regardless of the Android system settings. Here’s how to enable the theme:
Open the Docs, Sheets, or Slides apps individually and go to Menu > Settings > Theme > Dark in each app.Google says that users can preview their current document or sheet in the Light theme using More > View in light theme.
Google has decided to discontinue several old versions of specific G Suite apps in August 2020 – and encourages users to update their apps as soon as possible.
In an official blog post, Google says that it began making changes to its API and service infrastructure in 2018 in order to improve performance and security.Google notes the apps that need to be updated so that users’ workflows are not disrupted include: Classroom iOS app,Docs Android and iOS apps,Drive Android and iOS apps,Drive File Stream desktop app,Gmail iOS app,Sheets Android and iOS apps
Slides Android and iOS apps.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Efforts by M-Pesa to ensure that Tanzanians can receive money from all over the world got a boost over the weekend as Vodacom raised the bar with a new product which affords customers the option and ability to easily transfer and receive funds from individuals across more than 200 countries worldwide. Vodacom says with the expansion of its International Money Transfer service portfolio customers from over 200 countries can send and receive money via Vodacom’s Tanzania M-Pesa; The mobile Money services which has continued to drive economic growth and financial inclusion in Africa.
Vodacom Tanzania PLC Managing Director Mr. Hisham Hendi
This was made known at an international day of family remittances event held in Dar es Salaam where stakeholders met to deliberate on the future of International Remittance post COVID 19. Speaking during a panel discussion on the same, Assistant Manager, Oversight and Policy at Directorate of National Payment Systems from Bank of Tanzania (BOT) Albert Cezari said the national bank has increased limits on digital transactions and reviewed balances of mobile wallets in a bid to provide relief and ensure continuity of services as part of measures taken amidst COVID-19.
On his part, Vodacom Tanzania PLC Managing Director Mr. Hisham Hendi, said that international remittances make possible people and small businesses to stay connected irrespective of geography. He further pointed out that international remittances continue to transform the lives of thousands of Tanzanians through facilitating payments in education, health, and various business segments which is why Vodacom M-Pesa has aimed to continue providing a platform for Tanzanian diaspora to effectively participate in socio-economic activities which will contribute to the overall development of the country.
“We pride ourselves for being enablers in the payment system by facilitating cross border trade within the region for the efficient and seamless sending and receiving of funds, from anywhere around the globe through M-Pesa International Money Transfer Service.’ He said. odacom M-Pesa has broadened its portfolio of partnerships and countries over the past few months to widen its Money transfer service worldwide. At the global stage, partners include MoneyGram, WorldRemit, Remitly and JubaExpress, all of whom enable customers to receive money from over 200 countries across the World directly into their M-Pesa wallet. Pan African partnerships include Safaricom, MTN, EcoCash and Mama Money, which enable customers to send or receive money from Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Burundi and South Africa.
“With such a huge portfolio of international Money transfer partners, the world is a village with M-Pesa. We thank our customers for their patronage and we remain committed to deliver on our vision to lead Tanzania into the digital age and change lives through technology” He concluded.
Peter De Caluwe, CEO- Thunes praised the move saying such partnerships and innovations support the true African spirit because African countries have always been connected through daily movement of people, goods and services. International Money Transfer services are critical to the African economies as they facilitate inflow of foreign currency into these countries which has a direct bearing on the social and economic welfare of Africans”.
“Whilst the importance of mobile payments to financial inclusion in developing markets cannot be overstressed, the M-Pesa IMT service goes an extra mile by allowing previously excluded to send and receive money across borders affordably. Thus our partnership with Vodacom M-Pesa aims at increasing the reach of international money transfers’.
Vodacom M-Pesa is Tanzania’s largest mobile financial service introduced by Vodacom Tanzania PLC in 2008. Now GSMA certified and with over 10 million customers, M-Pesa has significantly contributed towards financial inclusion and economic activity in the country. Customers deposit and withdraw money from their M-Pesa wallets through over 200,000 agents across the country. The M-Pesa ecosystem connects businesses, banks and government agencies making digital payments possible. To date, M-Pesa continues to be the market leader in mobile financial services, rolling out innovative services such as savings & Loans, Virtual Debit cards, Overdraft services, Group savings, E-payments and many more, which address the real needs of Tanzanian thereby enhancing financial inclusion and deepening. According to World Bank Figures, Tanzania recent remittances stood at $430 million, an increase of $25 million from 2019. The sum represents 0.8 percent of the country’s GDP.
Vodacom Tanzania Plc is Tanzania’s leading mobile operator and mobile financial services provider. We provide a wide range of communication services for consumers and enterprise – including voice, data and messaging, video, cloud and hosting, mobile solutions and financial services – to over 15 million customers. Vodacom Tanzania Plc and its subsidiary companies are part of the Vodacom Group registered in South Africa, which is in turn, owned by Vodacom Group Plc of the United Kingdom. It has been registered on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) with stock name: VODA.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
It is common knowledge that there are too few information security professionals to meet the demands of business. Estimates are that for every qualified information security practitioner on the market in 2020, there will be at least three vacant positions for them to choose from.
Steve Jump, outgoing head of corporate information security governance at Telkom
Information security as a choice of specialisation is now a hot topic because it pays really well — quite possibly the highest starting and career salaries in the IT professions. The lucrative salary, however, can come at quite a personal cost.
That earning opportunity is attracting a lot of otherwise normally IT-capable people into considering security as a specialised discipline. Companies are paying more to attract and retain these skills. In spite of these lucrative opportunities, why is it that so many experienced security professionals are leaving their current employers?
Although burnout is common in high-pressure industries, the pressures that security professionals are exposed to can take this to a new and disturbing level
IT has always been a high-stress profession, but information and cybersecurity specialists and executives are currently seen as the most likely subjects to experience burnout. Although burnout is common in many high-tech, high-pressure industries, the pressures that security professionals are exposed to can take this to a new and disturbing level.
One reason for this is too few security specialists, as everyone who is able to deliver a competent cybersecurity function will be overworked — nothing new there in the IT space. But, apart from the brutal and merciless 24×7 “fix it now” ethos common to IT, cybersecurity practitioners have another equally challenging problem to contend with.
Cybersecurity in principle is about detecting and defending your company from active attacks by cybercriminals. It is an unending, intense and technically demanding process. This continual and aggressive attack, however, triggers an equally intense response in the best security practitioners; where their understanding and dedication can lead them to take a strong personal and emotional position in defence of their companies.
Often overworked, underappreciated, frequently blamed for that one failure out of a hundred unacknowledged successes, rarely appreciated by the very business that they protect; these emotionally engaged front-line cyber warriors, whether at a network technical level, security operations executive, or at CISO level, can easily fall prey to a level of PTSD that can lead to serious burnout.
The very dedication that can make these professionals such an asset can become their Achilles’ heel, the best of the best do take cybersecurity extremely personally. This professionalism is their secret power. But no one has an infinite reserve of power, and even as highly paid as these professionals are, their employers frequently fail to invest in their emotional and physical well-being.
Cybersecurity is an adversarial environment. It requires suspicion, intuition, intelligence, research and dedication to function well within this space. Due to its confrontational ethos, it also requires stress management techniques that rarely exist outside of the military, and almost never in a corporate environment.
The first signs of trouble within your security team can appear in the least expected places. Any cybersecurity manager will have seen this happen, but may not have fully understood the causes. If your job requires that you suspect everything, trust no one until verified, and assume imminent attack at every corner, then as your stress increases your ability to leave this suspicion at the office begins to fail. The level of security intensity required at work as a cybersecurity professional is completely toxic to personal and family relationships. The first signs of trouble are broken relationships and divorces.
Some 90% of security professionals at a CISO level report that they suffer moderate to high levels of stress; 60% report that they have trouble switching off and cannot easily disconnect their business stress from their personal lives.
Given the investment, and dependence, that many organisations have on a functioning and reliable cybersecurity team it is surprising that so few have any formal stress or counselling programmes for their “most valuable players”. Many companies would state that they have available counselling, but then confirm that it is voluntary. Under voluntary participation conditions, even if top-level counselling were available, there is stigma attached to it and most would decline – even the wise few that recognise the symptoms of PTSD.
If you want to have skilled cybersecurity executives it makes sense to start this level of support with your most junior recruits
If these cyber warriors – those that fight for you in cyberspace – were employed in any other adversarial profession (for example in the police, army, or even in a football team) they would have mandatory counselling sessions. No choice means no stigma.
Might it be time to consider this in business? If your business really needs the skill and diligence of these highly-expensive-to-recruit and highly-expensive-to-retain professionals, then should it not also ensure that it provides them with the counselling, support and stress protection commensurate with that value? This is not an executive level problem; if you want to have skilled cybersecurity executives it makes sense to start this level of support with your most junior recruits.
The secondary cost of the loss of these professionals is perhaps even more disturbing: they do not just withdraw from security. Their experience of burnout is more brutal than most, and the need to recover themselves means that they often change career and are not willing to share or teach their hard-earned cybersecurity experience to the already under-supplied next generation.
Steve Jump is outgoing head of corporate information security governance at Telkom
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Africa’s leading telecoms company Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) says its Fifth Generation (5G) tests in South Africa using its first 100 5G high sites offering commercial 5G mobile broadband shows tremendous results. Company sources say that tests runs from the network achieved significant speeds at all locations visited, all well above 300Mbit/s and one close to 800Mbit/s.
To get an idea of the performance of the network, some of the reporters drove to various places in Johannesburg’s north-western suburbs where MTN said it has 5G coverage, including Northwold, Boskruin, Honeydew and Sundowner. (MTN also has coverage in the Bryanston and Fourways areas in Johannesburg, but they confined our testing to the north-western areas.)
Using a 5G-capable Huawei P40 Pro, supplied by MTN, to do the speed tests they recorded to enable “NR”, or “New Radio”, in the mobile network settings before we could get a 5G carrier. They used the Ookla’s Speedtest software which is the gold standard for testing Internet speeds, both mobile and fixed, they found that on Ookla’s Speedtest application for Android. All tests were conducted inside a stationary vehicle and the Ookla software was left to determine the best server to connect to.
The best download speed outside the Northwold Spar on Elnita Avenue in Randburg – 789Mbit/s – followed closely by a test at the Shell filling station on Taurus Avenue in Sundowner (783Mbit/s). We also achieved our best upload speed in Sundowner: 117Mbit/s. See our test results in the screenshots below.
Latency, or network round-trip times, was also very good, and akin to what one normally sees on fixed fibre broadband connections. Ping times were always less than 10ms in our testing. All these results go to show that the 5G network will truly shake things up when fully operational across the country.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
