As more organisations prioritise digitalisation, the protection of internal and on-site data tends to slip down the priority list. But this is a mistake, one that could seriously cost a business in the event that they suffer a data breach. The hard reality, unfortunately, is that no company is safe from being attacked by cybercriminals today. Last year’s WannaCry ransomware incident was a rude awakening for many organisations, targeting devices running the Microsoft Windows operating system by encrypting sensitive business data, and demanding huge ransom payments in Bitcoin cryptocurrency to return control to the systems’ rightful owners. In all, a massive...
According to a report by Kaspersky, the number of internet users affected by cryptocurrency mining software has jumped by a considerable margin this year, when compared to last. The report published by the Russian security firm suggests that the prevalence of malicious software that uses consumers' computers and smartphones to mine cryptocurrency is "steadily growing". "The total number of users who encountered this form of mining rose from 1 899 236 in 2016-2017, to 2 735 611 in 2017-2018," the company elaborated. Both periods began in April and ended March in their respective years. Additionally, smartphones are becoming more pronounced targets of...
There's a new cryptocurrency soon to be launched, but it won't be taking its name from any memes or computer jargon. Instead, it'll be launched by Senegalese musician Akon. Not a stranger to investing in new ventures, Akon will name his cryptocurrency Akoin. (Get it?) However, it's not simply a marketing scheme. The rapper believes the technology has benefits for those on African soil, disadvantaged by political and social circumstances. "I think that blockchain and crypto could be the savior for Africa in many ways because it brings the power back to the people and brings the security back into the currency...
Big news in South Africa's online retail space: two of South Africa's clothing and lifestyle juggernauts, Spree and Superbalist, are merging into a single entity. The news was announced late Monday, and will see the two companies -- both part of the Naspers group -- mesh operations and eventually brand identity. "There is currently no integration between Spree and Superbalist, both part of the Naspers group, with each business running its own sourcing and buying, technical, marketing, warehousing and logistics functions while primarily targeting a similar, if not the same customer segment and demographic in South Africa," the companies wrote in...
It must suck if you've bought Bitcoin any time this year. The cryptocurrency, along with a slew of its competitors and peers, crashed in value this past weekend. This comes after a cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea dubbed Coinrail was hacked. The hack only saw US$40-million in cryptocurrency lost -- around 30% of the exchange's value -- but the implications were far reaching. According to Coinmarketcap, the price of Bitcoin was hovering at the US$7400 mark late Saturday. By Monday morning, the price dropped to US$6700. Its market cap now stands at US$116-billion, but that itself is down from US$130-billion two days...
We're just a few weeks away from the global phenomenon of watching men kick an inflatable bladder around a patch of grass, and cyber criminals have never been more excited. The FIFA World Cup, taking place in Russia this year beginning on 14 June, is an event that brings together billions of humans online. And taking advantage of these humans through online scams is an attractive proposition for some. According to security firm ESET, a number of scams have already been spotted in the wild. A majority of these dupes have taken the form of emails with documents attached, while others are...
It isn’t a case of if a small to medium enterprise, startup, entrepreneur and genius business idea will be hacked. No, today it is a case of when. Ransomware, fraud, hacks, breaches -- the list is fairly endless, especially as cybercrime continues to evolve at a rapid rate. Research undertaken by Barclays Bank in the UK has found that cyber fraud costs the SME around £1000 (R17 000) every, single time, and cost more than 50 000 jobs. he impact is vast and the reality, according to Experian, is that around 51% of small businesses don’t have a response plan in...
People are still falling for fake sites pretending to be Facebook, research from Kaspersky Labs suggests. In 2018 thus far, the Russian security company blocked "3.7 million attempts to visit fraudulent social network pages". Notably, 58.7% of these attacks were attempting to direct users to fake FB pages. That's a pretty substantial slice of the pie, considering that VKontakte -- Russia's version of Facebook -- was responsible for 20.8%, and LinkedIn 12.9%. "At the beginning of the year, Facebook was the most popular social networking brand for fraudsters to abuse, and Facebook pages were frequently faked by cybercriminals to try and steal...
Zapper will soon be compatible with Mastercard's Masterpass payments system, after the companies on Monday announced a new possible collaboration. The two companies are currently in talks to use the QR-code fueled app to complete payments at Masterpass-enabled merchants across South Africa, while Masterpass users can similarly use Zapper to complete payments where applicable. Mechanically, nothing will change for those who have used Zapper in the past. "When shopping, Masterpass users simply scan a Zapper QR code displayed at a point of sale, or online at a wide range of Zapper merchants, to pay for goods and services," the companies explained in...
Hot on the heels of Gmail's redesign, Google Drive is also getting its share of UI updates. The Mountain View company on Wednesday announced changes that will smooth out the service's currently clunky layout, and add some material design flair to the visuals. "There’s no change in functionality, but some icons and buttons have moved, and there’s a range of visual tweaks to align with Google’s latest material design principles," Google explains in a press release. With that said, specific design tweaks include changing the position of company logos, a settings icon placed alongside the search bar, a repositioned Help Centre icon...
As if Twitter users didn't have enough to think about this week (thanks Kanye), it sprung an even bigger surprise on its users late Thursday night. The social network prompted all of its 336-million users to change their passwords, after it discovered that its employees could potentially see them. Twitter's calling it a "bug", but it was seemingly a flaw in the way the firm logged passwords. We recently found a bug that stored passwords unmasked in an internal log. We fixed the bug and have no indication of a breach or misuse by anyone. As a precaution, consider changing your...
All the hype surrounding Gmail may be thanks to its first redesign in some seven years, but not all is well with Google's mail service. According to a number of reports, Gmail users on Sunday found a number of spam messages sent from their accounts. "My email account has sent out 3 spam emails in the past hour to a list of about 10 addresses that I don’t recongnize," wrote one user on Google's Product forum. Changing passwords didn't help this particular user either, nor did marking the mails as spam. "Please help, what else can I do to ensure my account...
First National Bank has today announced eWallet eXtra, a digital bank account that can be opened from a mobile device for unbanked South Africans. According to FNB, the mobile bank account is intended to plug the gap between its eWallet offering and traditional bank accounts that "do not meet the unique needs of irregular income earners such as seasonal workers." FNB suggests that this target market consists of some 11-million South Africans. The eWallet eXtra offering does attempt to plug this gap. "If you are above the age of 16 and own a cellphone, you’ll be able to get a mobile bank...
Recent reports of large data breaches are alarming for everyone. Customers worry about the implications of having their financial and personal information hijacked. The organisations that were compromised worry about both the near-term and the long-term effects on their business and other organisations worry if they will be next. Two things are certain, though. The cost of a data breach is going to be really expensive, and it’s not going to be the last time it happens. The big question everyone is asking is, what do I do about this? Perform a risk assessment A thorough risk assessment helps ensure you are focussed...
Hold onto your credit cards, folks. If all goes to plan, Huawei Pay will be coming to South Africa in the second half of the year, the company's Gene Jiao confirmed to Memeburn in an interview. Speaking on Thursday at the P20 launch in Johannesburg, Jiao -- the president of Huawei Consumer Business Group in the MEA region -- revealed that the firm plans to rollout its mobile payments platform to South Africa in the coming months. The news echoes Huawei's earlier announcement in March of a forthcoming mobile payments offering for South Africa, alongside a standalone app store, streaming music...
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