The Academic Staff Union Of Universities (ASUU) had earlier vowed not to renegotiate with the federal government of Nigeria after their last meeting. ASUU had earlier demanded from FG the sum of N1 Trillion which the government felt was an outrageous amount and insisted that they do not have such funds to meet ASUU’s demand. The federal government through its minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige stated that the revitalization fund being demanded by ASUU was a promise made to them by the administration of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan when the country’s finances were stable.

The Labour minister stated that the current Buhari administration had informed ASUU of its inability to honor the previous revitalization fund agreement, adding that the federal government promised to explore other options to fund universities. But with the recent discovery of President Buhari’s donation to Afghanistan, ASUU in its tweet had this to say; “President Muhammadu Buhari has today donated to ease the humanitarian situation and to help in catering for the needs of the millions of Afghan people, including women and children, meanwhile ASUU is on strike”.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, ASUU has vowed not to renegotiate, saying the federal government is not willing to pay outstanding funds. This further discovery will make them hell-bent on standing their ground as regards their decision of non-negotiation. 

The secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Hissein Brahim Taha, was reported to have in a statement, revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari donated the money over the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. He further disclosed that the donation comes in time and adds new momentum to OIC’s effort to contribute to easing the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.

It is often said that “charity begins at home”, but this is not the case of President Buhari who has chosen to be philanthropic to aid Afghanistan while federal universities in the country are on strike. This is nothing but a misplaced priority. I am indeed perplexed at how Nigeria, a nation that constantly borrows, donated such an amount while the country has so many pressing internal crises that need urgent attention. This just shows you how much value the President has for the nation. Mind you, I am not in any way against the country offering a helping hand to countries or agencies in need, but not when the whole country is ravaged with so many things that need urgent funds and attention.

It is disheartening to know that there are lots of refugees living in Idp camps in the country that are not well catered for. Hundreds and thousands of them are living in deplorable conditions after being displaced by Boko haram and Fulani herdsmen. Millions of Nigerians continue to live in poverty, there is a constant internal security crisis, yet the president chose to overlook these areas.

Permit me to digress a bit, from my research, members of the OIC are majorly Islamic nations, and it is indeed confusing that Nigeria is part of the cooperation, yet it is not a core Islamic country. Human Rights writers association of Nigeria (Huriwa) have in the past stated that it was illegal and unconstitutional for President Buhari to attend a summit exclusively planned for Islamic nations. 

They further issued a statement stating that it is contradictory that Nigeria whose grundnorm in section 10 of the Constitution specifically prohibits Nigeria from doing things that promote one religion as a state religion thereby disobeying the Constitution. 

It remains illegal and unconstitutional for Nigeria as a secular and multi-religious geopolitical entity to maintain such a membership relationship with a religious body.

The Inspector General of police (IGP) Mr. Usman Baba and The Police Service Commission (PSC) has approved a new dress code that allows female police officers to wear Hijab and even earrings as part of their police uniform.

This new dress code is primarily adopted to accommodate the rich Nigeria’s cultural and religious sentiments in the police service. For instance, the Islamic religion expects female believers  to wear hijabs, covering from their head down to their shoulders and arms and only to expose their face. With this new dress code, female police officers who are of the Islamic religion can be able to dress as their religion expects them while still putting on their police uniform and discharging their police duties.

According to the spokesperson of the police, Mr. Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in the public statement issued on Friday, stated that the new dress code was unveiled on Thursday at a meeting involving the Inspector General of police, top ranking police officers and “strategic police managers. 

The new dress code will also allow officers who wish to wear stud earrings under their berets or peak caps while in uniform which was not previously allowed. 

The police spokesperson went ahead to state that the new dress code was approved to guarantee gender inclusion in the police service for “optimum output and professionalism”. “The IG of police also  noted that the Nigeria police workforce has officers from every local government in the country with a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds, and an increased inclusion of female folks and the new dress code was approved to accommodate more of religious and cultural difference especially of that of female police officers and so to make them feel more comfortable in execution of their statutory duties. 

The police commission emphasized that the new approved dress code is optional and female police officers who wish to remain on the previous dressing status quo are allowed and female officers who wish to go by the new dress code are at liberty to do so. 

Officers were also forewarned to abide by the standard dress code and senior women police officers have been tasked by the IGP to ensure compliance with the approved standard for women police officers who have opted to adopt the new dress code. 

The Inspector-General of Police noted that this development, which is in line with international best practices, addresses the growing concern for gender mainstreaming and respect for culture and diversity,”.

Continued from here. 

Vehicle crime equally poses a dynamic challenge to these agencies. Vehicle crime investigators are invariably faced with ever-changing technology as well as regular introduction of new vehicle models.

Modern vehicles are more like mobile computers constantly threatened by hackers. The police must take note of this fact and advance on it.

Digital forensics is a branch of science encompassing the recovery and investigations of materials found in digital devices including computers, cell phones, and cameras. The police will continue to be challenged to acquire the needed tools and training to perform competent digital forensic investigations, and keep pace with criminal activity.

On this premise, it has become pertinent for digital forensic departments to be designed in all police quarters, and such units ought to be sustained by continually providing the required equipment, manpower, and environment as time progresses.

Legislation can also be of help while discussing this new innovation. Hence, lawmakers should provide a law, mandating all vehicles coming to Nigeria to bear micro-dotting technology. This would ensure that each vehicle contains approximately 1000 hidden markers that hold the identity of that vehicle, so that, in the event of the vehicle being stolen, it can be easily identified.

Importantly, the locations of the 0.5mm dots are not visible to thieves, thus cannot be altered by them. The police personnel should also be trained on how to identify data-dot technology. Continual in-service training would, therefore, be very helpful in this regard towards boosting staff confidence and competence.

The recently signed Cybercrime Act should equally be reviewed by the impending legislature and subsequently implemented by setting up a special unit under the Police Force that would be in charge of crimes involving the internet.

Such a unit must possess all the needed devices and experts. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is, on its part, expected to play a major role in crimes pertaining to the use of cell phones, thus the police must endeavour to collaborate with the commission.

The truth remains that, for Nigeria to properly tackle all kinds of crimes, the relevant authorities must boast of various well-equipped sensitive units on digital investigations, cyber security, and/or electronic discovery, as the case may be.

As sophisticated crimes evolve on a daily basis in our present days’ society, it has conspicuously become imperative for all the relevant authorities to equally consider deploying sophisticated measures with a view to tactically tackling the societal menace no matter whose ox is gored.

It’s on this premise I candidly implore the various law enforcement agencies and agents operating in Nigeria and beyond that are yet to embrace the current realities, to do so with all manner of seriousness and as a matter of urgency.

All the needed technicalities and techniques must be duly employed by the concerned bodies and individuals towards aptly arriving at the desired destination if they are prepared to fight crimes, which have ostensibly become the world’s dreaded nightmare.

It’s indeed high time we did the needful in a bid to salvage our respective societies that have seemingly been overtaken by men of the underworlds. This can only be accomplished by jettisoning all forms of frivolities for priorities’ sake.

Hence, as crimes prevail by the day in all corners of the world, every individual or entity, as the case may be, is enjoined to acknowledge that every aspect of criminalities could be aptly tackled with adequate deployment of technical measures.

So, as everyone, either individually or collectively, makes frantic and drastic efforts to combat crimes in our respective jurisdictions, we are urged not to despise the efficacy of the tech approach, which has apparently become the ultimate.

In the contemporary global community, crimes have abruptly and obviously become prevalent in such a manner that one could boldly assert that they are swiftly becoming synonymous with the modern society otherwise known as the ‘digital age’.

As such uncalled and barbaric activities prevail unabated, it has conspicuously become imperative for the concerned authorities in every affected area to think inwards with a view to initiating new innovative mechanisms towards combating them.

Mobile technology such as tracking devices otherwise known as ‘trackers’, which has emerged as a powerful crime-fighting tool, has shown significant impact in recent years on most countries across the globe.

A tracker is specially programmed equipment meant to trace the actual location of a person or thing. However, it’s worth noting that devices like cell phones, computers, cameras, and what have you, can equally function as a tracker if adequately utilized.

Cell phones, particularly Smartphones, contain inbuilt mechanisms including Global Positioning System (GPS) among other location information that the various law enforcement agencies find valuable. Information like voice call history, text/multimedia messages, phonebook contacts, web browser history, and email, can tremendously help investigators to gather people’s aims and the occasions they have attended, thereby providing the required direction.

Tracking people via their mobile devices has been adopted by several agencies in most nations, and has become very much a part of most investigations because virtually every adult now possesses a cell phone. Cell phone records can identify calls made and received.

The cellular towers that were used in the conversation, data communication, as well as the Short Message Service (SMS), can as well be obtained.  The cell phone records hold latitude and longitude information that can be used as a historical reference to identify where the mobile device was at a particular period.

Similarly, citizens are advised to regularly send digital photos and videos of crimes in their custody to apt quarters. New technology allows sent images to be directly linked to the record of a related call, and be forwarded to emergency respondents on their way to the crime scene.

A good example of such technology is CrimePush, a multiplatform Smartphone app that allows users to report crimes effectively and at ease. It equally gives users the ability to forward multiple GPS-tagged distress messages to designated emergency contacts/quarters.

High-profile criminal incidents all over the world have proven beyond doubts how valuable mobile phone images can be during crime investigations. The bombings in the United Kingdom (UK), precisely London, in July 2005 marked a turning point in news coverage and the role of camera phone images.

Witnesses to the attacks used their cell phone cameras to record their experiences in the aftermath. Not only did it signal a new era of citizen journalism, but police in London were able to use the sent photos as clues towards tracking the terrorists that masterminded the bombings.

SMS is more discreet and safer in some circumstances to include burglaries and kidnapping. Several police departments in various countries have text-a-tip programs that allow people to send anonymous messages from their cell phones.

With a view to providing people with a confidential means of communication, SMSs are sent to a separate third-party server where identifying information is removed and assigned an encrypted alias to ensure callers’ anonymity.

The various security agencies in Nigeria, especially the police, are required to fully employ the use of various tracking devices in issues regarding crimes. Technology is being developed and deployed by several criminals to perpetrate crimes, with the aim of leaving no, or little, digital footprint. This ranges from selling illicit goods on the internet to mass identity theft and credit card fraud.

Hackers who breached Nvidia’s database last month, stealing more than 71,000 employee’s information, have requested that the chipmaker allows its graphics cards to mine cryptocurrencies faster or face the imminent release of the company’s precious source code.

The Lapsus$ extortion gang, who claimed responsibility for the attack, gave conditions to Nvidia to avoid leaking the company’s sensitive data in their possession.

Lapsus$ has already published one tranche of leaked files, which among other things included the usernames and cryptographic hashes for 71,335 of Nvidia’s employees.

The Have I Been Pwned data breach notification service said the breach, which affects a total of 71,335 people, involves “email addresses and NTLM password hashes, many of which were subsequently cracked and circulated within the hacking community.”

Nvidia, which wasn’t quick to acknowledge the incident, confirmed on March 1st that its network was breached last month, with the attackers gaining access to employees’ login data and proprietary information. The company told BleepingComputer Tuesday that it detected “a cybersecurity incident which impacted IT resources” on February 23rd, but added that it found no evidence of a ransomware attack.

“However, we are aware that the threat actor took employee credentials and some NVIDIA proprietary information from our systems and has begun leaking it online. Our team is working to analyze that information,” Nvidia told BleepingComputer.

“We do not anticipate any disruption to our business or our ability to serve our customers as a result of the incident.”

Lapsus$ claimed they stole as much as 1TB of data in the breach that impacted Nvidia’s systems, causing a two-day outage. The group has threatened to leak hardware specifications info unless lite hash rate (LHR) limitations from GeForce RTX 30 Series firmware were not removed.

Lapsus$ also asked Nvidia to commit to open-sourcing their GPU drivers for Windows, macOS, and Linux devices until Friday, March 4th, to avoid having stolen information on all recent GPUs, including the RTX 3090Ti, leaked online.

‘Nvidia introduced LHR in February 2021 with the launch of its GeForce RTX 3060 models. Three months later, the company brought LHR to its GeForce RTX 3080, 3070, and 3060 Ti graphics cards. The reason: to make the cards less desirable to people mining Ethereum and possibly other types of cryptocurrencies. In recent years, the soaring prices of cryptocurrencies have created enormous demand for the cards because the cards are generally much faster and more efficient in performing the intensive computations required during the mining process.’

Lapsus$ went outside the usual financial ransom hackers demand to make the highly unusual demand: remove a feature known as LHR, short for “Lite Hash Rate,” or see the further leaking of stolen data.

“We decided to help mining and gaming community,” Lapsus$ members wrote in broken English. “We want nvidia to push an update for all 30 series firmware that remove every lhr limitations otherwise we will leak hw folder. If they remove the lhr we will forget about hw folder (it’s a big folder). We both know lhr impact mining and gaming.”

LHR works by looking for specific attributes of the Ethereum mining algorithm. When one of those attributes is found, LHR limits the hash rate, which dictates mining efficiency, by around 50 percent. “We designed GeForce GPUs for gamers, and gamers are clamoring for more,” Nvidia officials wrote when unveiling LHR.

Lapsus$ on Tuesday, added to its demand. The group now wants Nvidia to commit to making its GPU drivers completely open source.

“So, NVIDIA, the choice is yours! Either:

–Officially make current and all future drivers for all cards open source, while keeping the Verilog and chipset trade secrets… well, secret

OR

–Not make the drivers open source, making us release the entire silicon chip files so that everyone not only knows your driver’s secrets, but also your most closely-guarded trade secrets for graphics and computer chipsets too!

YOU HAVE UNTIL FRIDAY, YOU DECIDE!” they wrote.

Nvidia has not responded to the demands and it’s not clear, given its body language to the hack, if the chipmaker will yield to the demands. We still have until the end of today to find out.