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Home Blog Page 5417

Log4J Vulnerability: What Nigerian Businesses Should Do

By
Adeyemi O. Owoade
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0

In the early days of December, 2021, it was announced that an important software used by developers to keep logs and records of their development on a software has a vulnerability that allows hackers to access it even remotely. LOG4J is the software hence the name LOG4J Vulnerability. This Vulnerability is ravaging windows and Linus operating systems.

Since then a lot of work has been done to introduce several patches to secure different softwares. However, despite all these patches, there have been reports in different parts of the world of breaches arising from the vulnerability.  VentureBeat has reported a couple of attacks as result of the LOG4J Vulnerability which include Dridex, a malware that attacks financial institutions as reported by Cryptolaemus security research group. VentureBeat also reported that a Belgian defense ministry experienced a cyber attack which was traced to the same vulnerability.

 In addition, Akamai Technology said that “certain aggressive attackers are performing a huge volume of scans, targeting Windows machines” by leveraging the vulnerability in Log4j. Uptycs Researchers have also reported the possibility of LOG4J being used to deliver botnet malwares. Checkpoint in a blog post also reported that it has discovered over 60 variations of attack arising from vulnerability listing Bitcoin mining as top of the software experiencing the vulnerability. It also reported that an Iranian state-backed hackers used the same to attack Israeli government and businesses.

Due to the above uprising, it follows that Nigerian businesses should be proactive in dealing with these issues as they are not exempt from receiving the gift of Santa Claus being shared in cyberspace.

In this article, I will analyse the basic steps Nigerian businesses can take to stay proactive in this time.

Assessment of Software

It will be dangerous to assume your company is safe when you are not sure of the tools your developers use. Ensure that the developers conduct an assessment of all the software they use and run security tests on all of them. Check all software for scanning activities and any other sort of exploitation. Majorly, Linus and Windows are easily affected by the vulnerability but at this time it is important to do a general assessment and penetration test on all platforms.

Update Software

Several patches have been introduced by security engineers. Get updates to the patches and install patches to all affected software. Of course it is important to note that there will be several patches in the black market, it will be dangerous to just install anything. Contact your trusted software producers for updates on their software. Ensure your Infosec team (if you have any) conduct tests on all patches to be installed.

Conduct Cybersecurity Awareness

It is often said that a strong firewall is useless if the human wall is weak. Although it is the holiday season, it is of utmost importance to conduct Cybersecurity Awareness for all employees including the developers in the company. This will help all employees contribute to the safety of the company. A chain is as strong as its weakest link.

Report Data Breach

In the event you discover that a breach has occurred and personal data has been breached, report the same to NITDA. Although the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation is silent on reports of data breaches, the Implementation Framework for the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation compels you to report such data breach within 72 hours of discovering the breach. It is also important to inform data subjects where the breach will lead to high risks to the data subject.

Review InfoSec Policies

This is a time to conduct a review of all internal InfoSec Policies. Also, reemphasize the need for employees to follow all cyber security steps put in place in the policies. Policies are not meant to sit on the computers but to guide everyone in the company on compliance with Data and cyber security measures. So as you review the policies, ensure enforcement of the same.

Implement Protective network monitoring and blocking

It is suggested that businesses think about detecting exploitation attempts, and some may want to adopt defensive blocking at the HTTP or packet layers. Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) users should make sure there are rules in place to guard against this issue. Blocking URLs containing strings like “jndi:ldap” is one example. Variants of the exploit string may be able to get around current WAF regulations. As a result, WAFs should not be used as the sole control.

Businesses that understand how their servers handle typical outgoing connections may want to be sure they’re blocking unexpected outbound connections as well (particularly LDAP, LDAPS and RMI, however exploits may work over arbitrary ports). Blocking outbound connections without first knowing why they are needed may prevent exploitation, but it may also cause services to fail if they rely on them.

Conclusion

Due to this LOG4J Vulnerability, a lot of attacks and breaches may occur on the coming months. It is advised that businesses, more than ever before, sensitize their customers on how to react to phishing emails, texts and vishing calls. Board members and executive officers are also advised to ensure that their employees are putting in all proactive measures to ensure that their company is safe from the LOG4J Vulnerability. When data is shared with third parties, it will be necessary to contact such and ensure they put in place security infrastructures that will ensure that data breach is prevented. In the end, a cyber security culture is the most important for all businesses at this time.

Nigeria And Her Intriguing Borrowing Tradition (II)

By
Fred Nwaozor
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Editor’s Note: This post continues from this one:

It’s noteworthy that such an economic approach as borrowing becomes consequential only in certain circumstances, and not in all as being presumed in various quarters.

Even as an individual, if you dare take borrowing as a tradition or norm, you will surely live to regret it. We, either as individuals or groups, need to borrow sometimes but not always.

Of course, many are of the view that provided you are borrowing for a tangible project, it’s a welcome development. No doubt, borrowing becomes paramount and necessary only when the prospective borrower intends to use it for feasible projects such as capital expenditure.

Ab initio, Nigeria was borrowing for tangible reasons. But as a result of corruption, rather than doing the needful or investing the borrowed funds meaningfully, she invariably ends up doing otherwise.

So, if Nigeria as a people failed to address such a lapse, the nauseous phenomenon would continue to repeat itself, thereby making the country indulge in borrowing perpetually.

On a yearly basis, Nigeria’s international debt increases colossally, thus negatively affecting her current account balance which is expected to rise steadily.

Survey indicates that external debt in Nigeria averaged USD6.38 billion from 2008 till 2015 when it reached an all-time high of USD56.74 billion in the fourth or last quarter of the said fiscal year which was about 10.9% of her GDP for that very year, though it recorded a low of about USD3.63 billion in the first quarter of 2009.

Nigeria’s total public debt stock stood at N33.107 trillion or USD87.239 billion, as at first quarter or March 31, 2021. Worse still, a large portion of these debts are owed to private lenders at variable interest rates.

Rather than being preoccupied with how to repay the backlog of debts, the government keeps borrowing at the expense of the country’s economy. This implies that Nigeria has apparently absorbed incessant borrowing as a tradition.

Having acknowledged that it isn’t a wholesome belief or practice, there’s a compelling need to put up stiff measures towards addressing the monumental anomaly.

Against this backdrop, let’s briefly take a tour to the history book. The IMF then imposed its Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) conditionality on the deficit countries, which Nigeria was inclusive, to force them to take necessary steps toward reducing their payments deficits and consequently earn sufficient foreign exchange to enable them to pay back their loans.

Hence, they had to devalue their official exchange rates, abolish or liberalize foreign exchange controls, introduce anti-inflationary programmes as well as adopt a free trade policy.

Notwithstanding, the ‘almighty’ SAP didn’t produce any successful result; rather, it ended up constituting more problems, perhaps still due to corruption. Now, the question is: how can Nigeria escape from this lingering debt trap as well as desist from her unending borrowing tradition?

The answer is simple. We need to embark on an economic lobotomy. The Mohammadu Buhari-led administration has to shift course from an internationally-dependent growth to domestically-based economic development plan.

To this end, it has to strengthen most of the country’s fiscal policies, participate in frugal expenditure, initiate deflationary economic measures, detest construction of white-elephant projects, and most importantly tackle the unbridled corruption as well as security challenges with the last drop of its blood.

We must understand that growth can be self-generated by focusing on products commonly consumed by low-income citizens. Even a little improvement in the productivity and income in such a quarter will capture a sizable market and assist in sustaining development of other products and markets.

Therefore, instead of embarking on massive infrastructural projects, the government ought to start with improving such capital-oriented projects that make production cost-effective as road cum railway network, power cum water supply, and refineries.

So, acknowledging that borrowing is only regarded as a healthy practice when the borrowed funds are utilized judiciously and selflessly, it’s needless to reiterate that governments at all levels must invest meaningfully and wisely to reap heavily and successfully. 

Restrictive Social Interaction: Can We Go Back to the Stone Age Ways of Communicating and Socialising?

By
Mutiu Iyanda
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Amo from South Africa talks to Patrice C. McMahon, , director of Global Engagement, before the lecture. 20 Students from southern African countries are on the UNL campus for 4 weeks as part of UNL study of the U.S. Institute on Civil Engagement. January 17, 2014. Photo by Craig Chandler / University Communications

The power of reasoning God gave to mankind has led to various inventions that have helped and still help in solving simple and complex activities. These inventions have significantly contributed and still contribute to interpersonal, intercultural, and public communication among different races in the world. Within human communication, technological advancement has led to changes in the manners through which people communicate at personal and societal levels. With the advent of technologies tools such as telephones, the internet, social networking sites, and other interactive media, we are now connecting in new ways on both physiological and emotional levels.

Despite paying a huge sum of money to have these technologies, none of us has really realised that our social intimacy is being eroded on a daily basis. Before the advent of these technologies, in a typical African society, family members would visit each other frequently, but now new media tools such as telephone has taken over the usual visits of Africans living in other towns or cities within their geographical locations. Nowadays, an African man prefers calling his relative, exchanging pleasantries for a visit capable of cementing social cohesion. This observation agrees with Thieubaud that “people have given up so much in exchange for the glory and never-ending development of science, technology, and commerce, but they have little or no time for a few kind words with a neighbour or a friend or simply another human being whose path they cross during their busy days.”

No doubt, the emergence of various technologies for communication purposes has reduced social intimacy, leading to social isolation and numerous poor health conditions, especially when people find it difficult to do certain things without others. As it was examined earlier, all communication was conducted orally, using the mouth and tongue to converse and the ears to hear before communicative technology tools sprung up.

Nowadays, we have seen people engrossed in interaction with one another online without seeing specific non-verbal cues, which have the tendency to give clues to effective understanding of the messages being passed across. At the educational level, during lectures, we have seen how learners interact among themselves online through social networking sites, jettisoning teacher-learner rules. Findings from my recent empirical study support this observation. In the study, it was discovered that sampled students of a senior secondary school in Nigeria significantly initiated textual and voice communication and sought more clarifications on class-assignment among themselves without considering the consequences of not paying attention to teachers.

Apart from social isolation and a reduction in social intimacy, poor health conditions such as depression, isolated alienation, and being overweight could also result from overdependence on technological tools for interpersonal communication. For instance, addiction to the use of interactive platforms on the Internet for many hours without physical empathy with the interlocutors is a unique way of creating depression in one’s life. Being with a computer for a long time meditating alone is also a typical means of increasing estrangement, while situations that result in both dangers are keenly connected with being overweight.

No matter the present benefits we are deriving from the various technologies, we still need to go back to our previous interpersonal communication norms, which aid us in communicating with passion and compassion for the betterment of everyone. Returning to pre-technological interpersonal communication would go a long way toward reducing social conflict escalation caused by excessive consumption of individualized information from technologies such as the Internet, which do not allow inclusive social interaction. In other words, our social interaction within the technological sphere is mainly established through machines and ends with the same means without real-life face-to-face contacts, which give interlocutors the opportunity to assess non-verbal cues and establish empathy.

Consulted Materials

Lasisi, Mutiu Iyanda “Class Structure as Determinant for Students’ Academic Uses and Gratifications of New Media: Luther’s King College, Ile-Ogbo, Nigeria as a Case” Journal of Communication and Media Research (in press)

O’Donoghue, Zoe “Friend Me”: The Impacts of Technology on Human Interaction” Running  Head: Technology and Human Interaction Volume (na) (n.d) Pp1-13

Thiebaud, Jane “Effects of Technology on People: Living F2F Conversation and Socia Interaction” Proceedings of the Media Ecology Association, Volume 11, 2010 Pp 117-128

Don’t try to play Boss too early in a startup

By
Samuel Ajiboyede
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First, I would like to point out that I have used the term CEO in a very loose form to represent the general perception of a CEO lifestyle, where one is boss to everyone and accountable to no one.

In the first year or couple of years of your business operation, there are a lot of things you will be doing as the founder, but none of them includes playing Boss. If anything, you will in fact take on any and every role to fill every vacuum. It is not uncommon to find the founder acting as a marketer, business developer, sales manager, accountant, secretary, and so on. Without taking on any of the titles, the founder will carry out all the functions in the beginning, and only let them go when he employs others with time.

Even after employing others, most successful entrepreneurs will tell you that in the first couple of years, they had to sit in the same room and work with the other employees. It is at this stage that you walk into an office and cannot differentiate the founder from the rest of the employees. And indeed, this is what it should be.

“I’m a boss, I get to do what I want to do and I can come in whenever I want and close whenever I want and I don’t have to answer to anyone. No one tells me what to do…”

As a founder and entrepreneur, this is the exact mindset you do not need. In fact, if you do your recruiting right, you should get some life-saving suggestions and insights from your employees but if you decide to act like a boss instead of an employee, you would be taking the quickest route to failure.

As the founder, you have the employees accountable to you. The next question is who are you accountable to? Who will make sure you attend your meetings, meet deadlines, and do all you have on your to-do list?

Some CEOs and founders will tell you that their Personal Assistants or Executive Assistants are like the bosses they have to answer to. They draw up the itinerary, schedule meetings, oversee operations, and make sure that the CEO shows up and does all he is supposed to. Although they are assistants, they are often critical parts of the business and keep the CEO on his toes.

The word ‘entrepreneur’ is not synonymous with ‘boss. As a founder, if you don’t hold yourself accountable and you don’t have someone who does, you will fail.

Be focused on selling your product and idea first. Know what is going on with sales, or else your business might hit the rocks. you should know how to connect with the customers instead of playing Boss. Don’t try to be too much of a business owner, but focus on trying to sell and make money based on your selling abilities

That dream life of a CEO will come anyway, but trying to live the dream too early can kill the dream. The dream life of an entrepreneur based on social media perception can be late mornings, dishing out the orders and taking no one’s suggestions but yours; but if you choose to toe this path in your business, you can well expect a crash soon.

The Innovators of Abia And Scaling The Umunneoma Economics

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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0

Let’s meet at Abia State special day on Dec 30. Let’s renew the spirit of the Aba women of 1929 through entrepreneurial capitalism. Let’s scale the mercantile spirit of Arochukwu people. Let’s expand the trading sagacity of the Bende people. Let’s elevate the enyimba spirit of Ngwaland.

Let’s drum up the enterprising spirit of the Ukwa people. Let’s pursue new knowledge  like the Isuikwuatos and Umunneochis. Let’s build as the Umuahias. Let’s visit foreign lands and close deals like Ohafias.

From the east of Abia to the west, from the north of Abia to the south, boys and girls, men and women, the old and the young, are looking for a new rebirth and restoration of the state. We’re God’s Own State and indeed we need to make Abia this earthly paradise.

I will be speaking to deliver the message for our beautiful state. Join me on Dec 30 before the icons, merchants, titans, and leaders of our state. I want to see the innovators back. We built the old Aba – and we can rebuild Abia state.

Ndi Abia, let’s begin and get it done.

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