👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Phishing scams in Africa

CRYPTO MARKET: $5.2 MILLION DRAINED FROM SOLANA

Bitcoin	$23,180	+ 1.71%
Ethereum	$1,655	+ 3.02%
BNB	$300.96	+ 7.20%
Solana	$39.30	+ 0.91%
Cardano	$0.5099	+ 10.04%
Name of the coin Price of the coin 24-hour percentage change		Source: CoinMarketCap

* Data as of 03:46 AM WAT, August 04, 2022.

Another day, another hack.

On Monday, Bridge protocol Nomad was hacked and nearly $200 million moved from the platform. Yesterday, July 3, digital assets worth millions of dollars were stolen from about 8,000 wallets on the Solana blockchain, one of the 5 largest blockchains in the world. The stolen assets include Solana’s native cryptocurrency SOL, a small number of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and over 300 Solana-based tokens. The Solana “drain” was carried out by an attacker who exploited a flaw in certain software of popular wallets used on the blockchain. So the fault was not from the Solana blockchain itself unlike the hack of the Nomad bridge which spiralled into chaotic crowd looting.

Security experts estimate that about $5.2 million have been stolen so far

WHATSAPP REFUSES TO BREACH USERS’ PRIVACY

The newly proposed UK and EU laws are asking social media platforms to read people’s messages and WhatsApp is refusing as it’s a violation of users’ privacy.

Why is WhatsApp being asked to do that?

Governments are in hot pursuit of child abusers and want to fish them out through social media platforms. Their eyes are set on WhatsApp because its parent company—Meta Platforms—has proven to be a popular choice of criminals for the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Meta accounts for more than 90% of the child abuse reports made to the UK’s clearing house. Last year, it made nearly 27 million reports of suspected child abuse to a national clearing house.

Thin lines and grey areas

Despite these numbers, Meta has been accused of underreporting the situation in fear of getting into legal troubles for wrongfully accusing an adult of child abuse. It is a really grey area for all the people involved.

In a bid to get black-and-white evidence, these proposed laws are demanding for messages to be read to correctly identify CSAM. This calls tech companies to toe the thin line between privacy rights and their responsibility to clamp down on child sexual abuse.

The side of the majority

WhatsApp, which is popular for protecting message privacy with its end-to-end encryption technology, has picked a side of the thin line and it’s with the majority. WhatsApp CEO, Will Cathcart, said he will not make WhatsApp ”less desirable to 98% of our users because of the requirements from 2%.” Citing that it reports more abuse suspicions than any other company, Cathcart explained that WhatsApp had already implemented effective measures to clamp down on CSAM that do not require sacrificing everyone’s security.

The other side of the thin line

In 2021, in an attempt to balance privacy rights with its duty to clamp down on CSAM. Apple announced its scanning feature for iCloud Photos that would scan photos for child sexual abuse content. The company received backlash so heavy that the company removed any mention of the feature from its website. 

ANC PLANS TO SHUT OFF 2G AND 3G NETWORKS IN SOUTH AFRICA

African National Congress (ANC) member and South Africa’s communications and digital technologies minister, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, says the ANC wants South Africa to start working on an official timeline to shut down 2G and 3G connectivity to modernise the country’s mobile networks.

Speaking in her capacity as the party’s expert on media and ICT during a media briefing following the ANC’s 6th national policy conference, Ntshavheni said the ANC wanted the government to consult with the industry over a roadmap for shutting down the older network technologies.

But why, though?

According to MyBroadband, the 2 newer technologies are more spectrally efficient as they can support greater network capacity and higher throughput with the same bandwidth, meaning that in theory, shutting down 2G and 3G will improve broadband quality and make data cheaper for all South Africans.

After shutoff, network operators can employ the frequency spectrum occupied by 2G and 3G signals to provide faster and better connectivity using 4G and 5G.

The cost factor

In June this year, Ntshavheni announced that South Africa would ban importing and distributing 2G devices by the end of February 2023. The ban, according to the minister, would enable a robust programme to modernise South Africa’s mobile networks.

However, the issue is that 2G is still vital for smaller devices with basic connectivity, such as machine-to-machine and internet-of-things (IoT) communication.

According to mobile network operator Vodacom, South Africa has become a dumping ground for cheap devices that use obsolete 2G tech, making the transition to modern networks more difficult.

Light at the end of the spectrum

To ensure that a fast switch to 4G does not disadvantage households still stuck with old 2G and 3G devices, Vodacom has been pushing sales of 4G devices for less than R1,000, including those under the Kicka and Tecno brands.

Zoom out: South Africans will be hoping the switch will not take as long as the switch from analogue to digital broadcast systems which has been dragging on for over 15 years.

UBER EATS GIVES RIDERS EXTRA INCOME STREAM IN SA

Much like its electricity, South Africa’s economy has recently been struggling to stay afloat. Uber Eats is now stepping into the good samaritan shoes by supporting its delivery bike riders in the country to make an extra 10% of their monthly income with practically zero extra effort. 

What is the magic happening?

Through a partnership with MotionAds, the bikes of interested delivery riders will have ads placed on them while the riders go about their delivery business. Businesses will then have the opportunity to advertise their brands on these ubiquitous bikes and gain, according to MotionAds, 300,000 impressions per ad. 

Why is Uber Eats doing this?

“Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” is the informal way to say it.

Uber Eats understands that delivery bikes represent the lifeline of their business, so they’re doing what it takes to ensure these foot ride soldiers are happy and thriving in the midst of a stormy economy.

Nice of them! 

PHISHING SCAMS SOAR TO 234% IN AFRICA

Africans are getting scammed.

Russia-based cybersecurity firm, Kaspersky, reported that phishing and social engineering scams in the second quarter were more than double those in the first quarter. The company detected 10,722,886 phishing attacks in Africa in Q2—a 234% increase from the previous quarter.

Sidebar: Phishing is when a scammer pretends to be someone or a business that you know to trick you into clicking a link in an email or website to get your personal information.

How are they scamming victims?

The research shows intense scamming activities were carried out on fraudulent pages posing as airline and travel booking services. They also posed in emails with overly generous offers of discounts or promos.

According to the report, in the past 3 months, 5,098,534 phishing attacks were detected in Kenya. In South Africa 4,578,216 scams were detected, and in Nigeria 1,046,136.

The report surmises that these scams are proportional to the amount of tech growth happening in the countries.

EVENT: TOPCODER MEETUP 2022 (TCO22)

Open talent platform, Top Coder, will host a regional technology meetup in Lagos on August 13, 2022. The event is free, and you can attend physically or virtually. The meetup will focus on giving attendees information and access to remote technology freelance jobs, competitive programming, and skill building opportunities.

You can register for the event here.

Venue: The Zone, Gbagada, Lagos, Nigeria

Date: August 13, 2022

Time:11 AM WAT

IN OTHER NEWS FROM TECHCABAL

Khazenly’s CEO on the fulfilment gap in Egypt’s logistics sector.

South African digital bank TymeBank to acquire fintech startup Retail Capital.

How insurtech startup Lami raised $3.7 million to make insurance accessible to Africans.

OPPORTUNITY: FUTURE FEMALES PLATFORM

Are you a woman trying to grow your network and your business? The Future Females’ new platform might be for you. 

Future Females is an online community forum and e-learning platform for female entrepreneurs who want to scale their businesses. The platform features events, discussions, and incubation. It also offers community-driven courses by renowned and award-winning entrepreneurs, business owners, and influencers.

There is more

The platform also has a fund called Futures Females Fund which members can contribute to or receive funding from. Over 6,000 entrepreneurs have already joined the waitlist since it was opened in August. Register here to join the waitlist and get early access to the platform.

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