Much of the data from the dark web which is usually described as the hive of illegal activities come from the activities of the black hat hackers who siphon these data from the surface web. Sometimes when you want to surf the internet or access some websites, you may be hounded by notifications or pop-up ads requesting you to download suggested device cleaner or anti-virus software so that you could have a nice surfing experience. These are usually the activities of hackers attempting to siphon data from your device. The surface web platforms notably Google, Facebook, etc have been held responsible for the nefarious activities of these hackers.

Recently, Meta-owned Social media giant, Facebook has declared that a Cybersecurity espionage group known as Bitter APT has been spying on thousands of people by using malware that masquerades as popular secure social media and messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Instagram etc. Bitter APT which is believed to be operating out of India and Pakistan symbolizes Advanced Persistent Threat and is a designation typically given to state-sponsored hacking groups.

According to Facebook’s report cited in a Forbes’ cybersecurity article by Thomas Brewster, Bitter APT which has become common among the Ukrainians as a tool for communicating information about the Russian invasion is dubbed “Dracarys” a name found in the malware code and a possible reference to the popular HBO series, Game of Thrones. The malware can siphon off all kinds of information from Android devices, including call logs, contacts, files, text messages and geolocation data, and it can also access a device’s camera and microphone. The group has been running attacks on energy, engineering and government entities in China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, according to a recent report by Cisco’s Talos cybersecurity research unit.

Forbes’ in-house analyst, Thomas Brewster, reported that Dracarys has been propagated on Facebook and Instagram by hackers posting as attractive women, journalists or activists who convince their targets to download the bogus app, and once they have done that, Dracarys abuses the accessibility features intended to assist users with disability to automatically click through and grant broad device permissions such as the ability to access the camera. The malware appears as legitimate and harvests data on the phones without being detected by anti-virus systems. According to Facebook, this shows that Bitter has managed to reimplement common malicious functionality in a way that went undetected by the security communities.

Another threat from a Pakistan-based government hacking unit known as APT36, a modified version of XplitSPY which was originally developed by a group of self-reported ethical hackers in India, has been uncovered by Facebook. APT36 had been spotted targeting people in Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, UAE and Saudi Arabia including military personnel, Government officials, employees of human rights and other nonprofit organisations and students.

Mike Dvilyanski, Facebook’s head of Cyber espionage investigations was reported to have said Meta has identified 10,000 users across at least nine countries that may have been targeted by Bitter APT and APT36 and it is in the process of warning users directly over Facebook and Instagram. He told Forbes that Meta intends to alert users that might have come in contact with these groups and inform them of the tools that they can use to secure their online presence.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) knows how to “lose” money: “On a U.S. generally accepted accounting principles basis, the Postal Service had a net loss of $4.9 billion for 2021, compared to a net loss of $9.2 billion for 2020. The Postal Service’s operating revenue was $77.0 billion for 2021, an increase of $3.9 billion, or 5.3 percent, compared to the prior year.” But do not be deceived: that is an amazing strategic operating  loss (you can also call this loss-leading operations where you expect to capture value in other ways even as you record direct losses in one way). 

This is what happens: you can visit a post office in New York, buy a stamp for 50 cents, and send mail to the remote part of Alaska. That delivery may possibly cost the USPS more than $5 but it is happy to charge you 50 cents. But by charging the 50 cents, it ensures that rural America and urban America remain connected for commerce. It is evident: if you remove the postal service in a state, a big divide will happen. Simply, you have broken the supply chain, and the rural and urban parts will become further apart. Economically, the rural area will struggle.

By running those losses, USPS keeps the rural economy going. But as it does that, the United States government makes up via taxes, made possible by those better logistics and supply chain USPS powers. That is the reason why they continue to focus on improving operations, and not overly increment of prices to become profitable.

America does it but China is the best in the world when it comes to this. If you live in New York, you can buy an iPhone case from a Chinese vendor on ebay for $1.50 including shipping. Yes, less than $2, and someone will ship a case from China to New York. If you try to buy the same thing within the US, you must go down by at least $7 including shipping. 

How is that possible? China subsidizes shipping and supply chain, making China’s products competitive for global commerce. The marginal losses are taken care of by higher taxes, overall economic growth and new employment.

Come to Nigeria: we miss the memo as everyone wants to run a postal service that is NEVER loss-making. That is possible since the leaders do not understand that without logistics and supply chain, there is no commerce. A loss-making postal service may be necessary since emails and new digital communication systems have taken out the most profitable segments of the old postal service systems. But since the physical world remains, postal services remain vital for healthy economies.

You need to understand my pains when you realize that Ovim postal service (just like the train station) is no more. And when it collapsed as most postal services in Nigeria, the village became far distant to the major cities because the supply chain had been broken.

I am hoping that by 2023, Nigeria will have a GREAT Team and fix this nation once again.

Aba is fading and that affected my village Ovim. Ovim train station was the largest train station in our area serving many communities. Typically, from Aba, every train is expected to stop at Umuahia, Uzuakoli and then Ovim, bypassing some small stations.

Ovim served Ohafia, Arochukwu, Ahaba, and many other communities. As that was happening, businessmen went and built houses around the station. But with the train station gone, everything has collapsed. The hub is gone and Ovim lost a strategic positioning which was used to supply garri to Enugu via rail!

Every kid rode a Raleigh bicycle which was used to move foodstuffs from Oriendu Market to the train station! It was great.

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Comment: The Nigerian government might have tried to do this by subsidising petrol.

If petrol was sold at the openn market rate in Nigeria, we would not be able to afford garri and rice any more.

What is left of our national logistic systems would grind to a complete stop.

We would even have civil disorders.

I think every government has it’s own version of subsidy in place, however Nigeria’s version is obviously not working.

My Response: What the US does is not subsidy, it is a pure strategic operating loss-making. This operating loss comes out of utilizing factors of production (there is an economic activity which helps to create finished goods, expanding the GDP). Subsidy does not require any deployment of factors of production. How? If we have 10 trucks of petrol and I pay $200k as a subsidy at inception, I am distorting market equilibrium since someone can re-export those 10 trucks.

An equivalent strategic operating loss in Nigeria would have been reducing the cost to ride Edo Line, Abia transport, BRT Lagos, Kaduna transport line, etc so that those using transportations (within a production line) pay say 10% less with government covering. That government expenditure is within a clear economic activity pipeline and cannot be disintermediated.

Comment 2: Strongly disagree…A loss leading strategy is terrible for an institution such as NIPOST. They are already losing so much money and capacity. There are almost nothing like USPS. I’m not even sure how they exist currently.

My Response 2: “I’m not even sure how they exist currently.” – Not sure where to begin since you noted that you are not even sure. NIPOST was “diminished” when emails came at scale as it was no longer making money via stamps. Before emails, NIPOST was super-profitable and postmaster general was a big appointment. Today, no one cares!  Nigeria instead of absorbing the “losses” stopped investing in it and sold some assets. Today, NIPOST does not operationally exist, it exists because of NIPOST electronic stamp duties we pay for wiring money in Nigeria. If you remove it, they will close shops tomorrow.

Sure – they have the peripheral export service, microfinance, wallet, big city delivery etc. But let us not be confused – without the stamp duty, they have no mission now. They do not cover more than 99% of Nigeria.

Comment 3: Amazing and simple analysis tinged with wisdom. So we need our national corporations like the NNPC and the other essential ones to run being subsidized so they could provide essential services which in turn trigger economic growth. Unfortunately, the political boys don’t see it this far and clear.

My Response: Making NNPC a strategic loss-maker or loss-leading will not be correct. You benefit from strategic loss-making if that activity that generates that loss can enable you to tax the outputs to recover the losses. The loss USPS makes generates $billions in US tax that compensate for that loss.

An equivalent strategic operating loss in Nigeria (in the oil sector) would have been reducing the cost to ride Edo Line, Abia transport, BRT Lagos, Kaduna transport line, etc so that those using transportations (within a production line) pay say 10% less with government covering. That government expenditure is within a clear economic activity pipeline. When we tax that, we recover that “loss”.