TechCabal Daily – Sex sells, but for how long? 🔒

Would you help a hacker blackmail your employer (if you’re an employee) for a $1 million cut? I asked some of my colleagues this question and the responses were quite hilarious.

Well, this Nigerian Hacker who is also building a social network platform recently offered some employees this opportunity.

Backstory: According to cybersecurity firm Abnormal Security, on August 12, they intercepted a number of emails sent earlier in the month to some of their customers. The emails came with a $1 million offer, in bitcoin, to assist in a ransomware scheme. Over the course of five days, the team at Abnormal Security engaged with the hacker via Telegram pretending to be an employee that was willing to cooperate.

How Ransomware works: Ransomware is a form of malicious software (malware) that encrypts a victim’s files. It converts the information in the files into a secret code that hides the information’s true meaning.

Historically, ransomware has been delivered via email attachments or, more recently, using direct network access obtained through things like unsecure VPN accounts or software vulnerabilities.

Once the malware has been deployed, the victim loses access to their files and then the attacker demands a ransom from the victim to restore access to the data upon payment. 

Victims of ransomware attacks are shown instructions for how to pay a fee to get the decryption key. The ransom in question can range from a few hundred dollars to millions, often paid to cybercriminals in Bitcoin. 

Zoom out: In yesterday’s newsletter Timi expressed concern about hackers and the Nigerian government being able to gain access to messages. In this article, I share the details — backed with screenshots — of a hacker attempting to do so.

Grace Kouassi, an Ivorian construction retailer, goes through a lot of hassle when she has to pay employees their monthly salaries.

Her challenges are not due to a lack of cash; they stem from how best to disburse the funds. She has three options – use bank transfers, mobile money, or cash. In countries like Nigeria or South Africa, the first option, to an extent, is effective for business payments but not in Ivory Coast.

Charges on real-time gross settlement (RTGS) interbank transfers can be as high as CFA17,000 ($30) and most times, the transfers take longer than expected – up to three days instead of a few hours – while also being prone to transaction issues.

But these challenges are not limited to SMBs; they affect government institutions and even multilateral development organizations.

Enter, Julaya

Founded in 2018, Julaya is a startup that provides businesses in Ivory Coast with mobile-based digital accounts to make money transfers.

Julaya solves this pain point by helping businesses disburse money electronically to several mobile money and mobile banking wallets via a single platform, faster than wire transfers or cash transactions.

Before launching Julaya, co-founders Mathias Léopoldie and Charles Talbot worked on the expansion of LemonWay – a marketplace payment solution – into Burkina Faso and Mali.

It was during their time at the France-based fintech firm they were introduced to the world of mobile money in francophone Africa and realised how businesses in Ivory Coast could reach a huge unbanked population faster via mobile phones.

Fast Forward to July 2021, Julaya processed over $2 million monthly for 50 customers.

Michael in this article shares the story of how Julaya is solving payment frictions for the World Bank in Ivory Coast.