Company News
Experian was not ‘Hacked’, says CEO
Sourced from Republic Title Experian CEO Ferdie Pieterse says that the business and credit information services agency was “in no way, shape, or form” hacked. This comes after the company confirmed that the personal information of nearly 24 million South Africans was breached. Pieterse adds that none of their systems, databases or records was ever penetrated or hacked. Instead, the fraudsters used social engineering tricks to present themselves as a legitimate Experian client, this resulted in the “release of information which is provided in the ordinary course of business or which is publicly available” – potentially including First and last names, ID numbers, Telephone numbers, Physical addresses, and Email addresses. The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) says t...
MTN Appoints New Group CEO
Sourced from The Techie Guy MTN has appointed Ralph Mupita as the new group CEO, effective from 1 September 2020. He succeeds Rob Shuter who is due to step down on 31 August. Mupita is currently the telco’s chief financial officer, and there is no word just yet on who is due to take up this position. “Ralph has served as the MTN Group CFO since April 2017 and has played a critical role in the development and execution of the group’s strategy, capital allocation processes, financial performance as well as in the resolution of a number of complex regulatory matters,” says MTN in a statement. “Ralph’s experience as the group CFO, strong knowledge of our businesses and markets, as well as successful background in financial services, M&A and emerging markets, place him in an excellent posit...
Airtel Africa and MoneyGram Enable Direct Mobile Wallet Transfers
Sourced from Comms MEA Airtel Africa has partnered with MoneyGram – an international money transfer company – to allow its 19 million customers to quickly and conveniently receive transfers directly into their mobile wallets. Once Airtel Money customers receive the funds, they can be accessed immediately and used to pay utility bills, goods and services, transferred to other individuals, or converted to cash at any of Airtel Africa’s branches, kiosks, and agents. “This partnership with Airtel will enable millions of consumers instant access to our global platform to receive money from over 200 countries & territories without having to even step outside,” says John Gely, Head of MoneyGram Africa. “We’re excited about how this customer-centric partnership with Airtel will expand our mobi...
Ukheshe Joins Forces with Mastercard and Nedbank in South Africa
Mastercard, Nedbank, and Ukheshe have launched Third-Party Processing Services (TPP) in South Africa which will give everyday businesses access to prepaid and virtual cards. Clayton Hayward, CEO of Ukheshe, says that through Ukheshe’s innovative payment solutions, businesses in South Africa can now issue virtual prepaid cards to employees or customers. Providing recipients with improved financial freedom where they have the option to earn rewards, incentives, and have a secure card that can work anywhere in South Africa while building brand association. Ukheshe will leverage Mastercard Processing, which enables it to launch secure prepaid payments programs to its customers with greater speed, flexibility, and convenience. Through this new relationship, prepaid products will be processed th...
Nutanix and Intel Launch Innovation Lab
Nutanix and Intel have launched a ‘first-of-its-kind’ joint innovation lab which will dedicate both products and engineering resources to the continued exploration, adoption, and productization of Intel’s latest innovations in computing, networking, and storage with the Nutanix software stack. Nutanix and Intel’s Innovation Lab is said to illustrate the companies’ mutual commitment to success for customers. This agreement not only opens the door for specialized engineering and resources but will also bring together the best of hybrid and multi-cloud with industry-leading computing power for end-users. “At Nutanix, we have long understood the importance of creating synergies between technology market leaders. By launching this Innovation Lab with Intel, we are actively working on critical p...
Gmail Suffers Outage Across the Globe
Google has confirmed that Gmail suffered an outage after users reported being unable to send emails and attach files. “Gmail service has already been restored for some users, and we expect a resolution for all users in the near future. Please note this time frame is an estimate and may change,” says the company in its latest update. Google Maps is Getting a more Realistic Update Google has revealed that it’s rolling out “new visual improvements that bring even more detail and granularity” to its global map. The company hopes that this will give help users get a better understanding of what an area looks like whether they’re exploring it virtually or planning a visit. Google uses high-definition satellite imagery that maps out 98% of the earth’s population. “With a new color-mapping algorit...
Instagram Accused of Collecting Users Private Biometric Data
Facebook-owned Instagram is being sued over allegations that it “illegally harvests the biometric data of users”, according to Bloomberg. “In [a] new lawsuit, filed Monday in state court in Redwood City, California, the company is accused of collecting, storing and profiting from the biometric data of more than 100 million Instagram users, without their knowledge or consent.” The report goes on to say that if found guilty of privacy violations, the company could be expected to pay $1000 per violation — “or $5000 if it’s found to have acted recklessly or intentionally”. Instagram Debuts Reels to Rival TikTok Instagram has rolled out a new way to create and share videos – Reels – to rival popular Chinese app, TikTok. The social media platform says that use...
Nutanix Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure Rolls Out on AWS
Cloud computing solutions company, Nutanix has announced the general availability of Clusters on AWS. This roll-out hopes to extend the flexibility and ease of use of the company’s hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) software, along with all Nutanix products and services, to bare metal Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances on Amazon Web Services (AWS). With this announcement, Nutanix aims to deliver hybrid cloud infrastructure — one that allows businesses to accelerate their digital initiatives and optimize spending, priorities further amplified in the age of COVID. Additionally, customers will be able to take advantage of the company’s full software stack on the private and public cloud. This includes unstructured storage solutions Files, application orchestration solution ...
Kaspersky Extends Reach to West Africa
Kaspersky has partnered with Pan-African distributor company, First Distribution, to expand its security software portfolio into West Africa. First Distribution currently distributes Kaspersky in Southern Africa and East Africa. The addition of the new territory means it now covers the full region for non-Francophone sub-Saharan Africa. Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity company founded in 1997. Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is said to be constantly transforming into security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialised security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and ev...
Microsoft Launches Safe@Home Hackathon to Tackle GBV
Microsoft South Africa is partnering with NPO’s, 1000 Women Trust and TEARS Foundation, to launch the Safe@Home Hackathon which aims to address gender-based violence in South Africa. Hackathons are aimed at finding solutions to specific challenges through collaborative brainstorming and programming in a short space of time. The Safe@Home Hackathon will look to facilitate collaboration to create and develop technology-based solutions that will work in the context of South Africa’s unique circumstances and challenges. “Gender-based violence is one of the most pressing and critical challenges South Africa faces: President Cyril Ramaphosa identified it as the second pandemic our country is currently battling and a war that is being waged against our women and children, with over 40% of S...
Sabiss: The New Recruitment Platform in Africa
Sabiss is the new job search platform dedicated to candidates on the African continent. Its goal is, on the one hand, to allow companies to have easy access to the profiles and skills they are looking for and on the other hand, to facilitate the job search for African residents, by centralizing offers from countries in Africa, but also from other continents. Sabiss is therefore aimed at talents in Africa looking for a job or an internship, but also at companies all over the world, wishing to strengthen their team with newly qualified recruits. For applicants, access to the platform and its services is free. Once they have registered and completed their profile, they have access to all job offers, can apply for an unlimited period or can benefit from advice on finding a job via the blog. Fo...
Trump Signs Executive Order to Ban Business with TikTok
US President, Donald Trump has reportedly signed an executive order that aims to prohibit all transactions with TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance. This order – which is expected to come into effect in 45 days – is meant to “address the national emergency with respect to the information and communication technology supply chain”. US President Donald Trump has reportedly signed an executive order that aims to prohibit all transactions with #TikTok’s parent company #Bytedance.Click To Tweet “The spread [of apps controlled by the Chinese government] continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” reads the order. “The United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security.” INBOX: @rea...
