ICANN Free to Proceed with the Delegation of .AFRICA Following Court Decision

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that a California Superior Court has denied DotConnectAfrica’s (DCA’s) second Motion for Preliminary Injunction to stop the delegation of the .AFRICA generic top-level domain (gTLD) to ZA Central Registry (ZACR).  DCA’s first Motion for Preliminary Injunction was denied by the Superior Court in December 2016.

Among other things, the Judge found that it appears the "Covenant Not to Sue" found in the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook is enforceable, citing to the recent Federal District Court Order in the Ruby Glen, LLC v ICANN matter, wherein the Court held that the “covenant not to sue” in the Guidebook is enforceable.  Accordingly, the Superior Court Judge ruled that “DCA's claims against ICANNfor fraud and unfair business practices are likely to be barred.  As a result, DCA cannot establish that it is likely to succeed on the merits.”

View the Court Order on the ICANN Blog.

In accordance with the terms of its Registry Agreement with ZACR for .AFRICA, ICANNwill now follow its normal processes towards delegation.

Culled from ICANN Blog.

.Ng Awards: NiRA Calls For Entries

The Nigeria Internet Registration Association [NIRA], a not-for-profit organisation that is charged with the management of Nigeria's country code top level domain name [.ng ccTLD] is calling for entries into the second edition of the “.ng Awards"

This was disclosed at a recent press conference organised by NiRA in Lagos where modalties of the 2017 .ng award and recognition, highlights of the MoU between AFRINIC and NiRA Academy as well as the MoU between Kenya [.Ke] and Nigeria [.Ng] registries were discussed.

Focusing on this year’s competition, NiRA noted that the awards and recognition seeks to focus on 18 different categories based on the criteria that; the Company, organization or individual must have registered and is doing business with a .ng domain name, the Domain name must have been registered for over 6months, the website associated with the domain name must be active on the Internet.

According to the President NiRA, Rev. Sunday Olakunle Folayemi, the award seeks to identify and encourage organizations, individual and brands that has actively promoted the safe use of internet to help stimulate the safe, responsible and positive use of the Internet for Nigerians in 18 categories.

The Grand Prize for each category winners award is total package access to .ng Awards Icon, available in various sizes and various formats for inclusion on their websites and marketing collateral.

A jury has been set up for this process headed by Mr. Shina Badaru, NiRA Board of Trustees and voting process ends April 3, 2017.

As part of the selection process, the public are encouraged to adopt the voting style which had been made open since February 20. For this process,  out of the 100% mark, voting for nominees by the general public will be earned 40% of the total voting score, while the Jury vote carries 60% of the total voting score.

Categories cut across; .ng Company of the Year, Most Innovative Online Service Company, Best Banking Website/Portal, Best Insurance Company Website/Portal, Best E-payment Website/Portal, Best Tertiary Institution website/portal, Best Secondary School website/portal, Best Primary School website/portal, Startup Company of the year, Best Local Hosting Company, The .ng Media Award -Best Print Media Website, Best Online Media Website, Best Electronic Media Website (Television), Best Electronic Media Website (Radio).

Other categories also include; Most valuable Youth organization, Public Sector Star Website Award, E-Government Star Website Award, Digital innovation in State Government, Digital innovation in Federal Government and Digital innovation in Local Government.

For further information and voting process, the general public are encouraged to read full details via http://www.nira.org.ng/voting

By Adenike Fagbemi

Twenty-Sweet-Things to Twenty-Saving-Things: The Year of Great Investm...

MMM Debut by Kelvin

NIGERIA FACES GREATEST CYBER SECURITY THREAT EVER IN 2017

Nigeria cybercrime landscape is changing rapidly with threats actors growing in size, scope, complexity and capability over the past few years.  With no single line of budget for cyber security by Nigeria government, lack of implementation of cyber security strategy and policy, one wonders how Nigeria plan to cope with imminent cyber-attacks in 2017. When it comes to cyber attacks, it is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when. The greatest security threat Nigeria faces in 2017 is cybercrime having defeated terrorism with the liberation of Sambisa forest from the notorious Boko Haram.

The Nigeria 419 cybercrime gangs are now specialising in using advanced malware tools common with sophisticated criminals and espionage groups according to a November 2016 report released by Palo Alto Networks.  In June 2016, a 40 year old Nigerian ostensibly to be the ringleader of a global cybercrime network behind scams totalling more than $60m was arrested in Port Harcourt. He was accused of leading a network that compromised email accounts of small and medium-sized businesses around the world.  

There are so many unreported cases of cybercrime activities going on in the country which resulted in financial loss to organisations and individuals.  It has been estimated that Nigeria loses about N127 billion annually to cybercrime. Looking ahead, I have identified five cybercrime that will dominate Nigeria in 2017 based on the current trends. The top five cybercrime in no particular order are CEO Email Scam, Ransomware, Online Assisted Kidnapping, Cyber Bullying and Online Impersonation.

CEO Email Scam is a phishing scheme that targets businesses by spoofing their email or use social engineering to assume the identity of their CEO.  The cyber criminals achieve this by researching employees who are in charge of Finance and request a wire fraud transfer to fraudulent account claiming to be the CEO. CEO Email scammers use techniques known as business email compromise and business email spoofing. Business email compromise is the process of hijacking an email account or email server to intercept business transactions and redirect payments. Business email spoofing is sending spoofed email from an external account pretending to be a company executive authorizing an irregular payment transaction.

The New Year will also witness more ransomware than ever seen before in Nigeria. With the rise of ransomware-as-a-service, cybercriminals can now purchase a user friendly kit they could deploy with little or no cyber know-how from the dark web. A Ransomware is a type of malware that infects a machine when user clicks on a seemingly legitimate link and unknowingly downloads a malicious file. The virus will then encrypt the user's files, share drives and servers, leaving them inaccessible unless the victim pays for the decryption key usually in crypto currency.

That Kidnapping is on the rise in Nigeria is no news, what many people don’t know is that kidnappers are being assisted by their victims’ social media online activities and geolocation data on their smartphones.  Geolocation data is information that can be used to identify an electronic device's physical location. Using smartphones built-in global positioning system (GPS) functionality allows location-based services (or geo-location) to locate and publish information about smartphone owners’ whereabouts. Kidnappers have started using geolocation and geotagging to target their victims. Geotagging are pieces of information that can be attached to a tweet, status or photo on a social networking site that show the physical location of where something had been posted. Social media that have location geotagging implemented include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and even Google+, amongst many others.

Cyberbullying will continue to rise in 2017. Cyberbullying is the use of internet to harass, intimidate or abuse a person or group with the intent to hurt them socially, psychologically or even physically. 2016 have seen some Nigerians going berserk by making online videos, publishing abusive post just to insult and harass their victims. It is not uncommon for people to circulate fake news about individuals or organisations on social media. With unrestricted access to internet via their smartphones coupled with several social media presence, teenagers have recorded highest number attacks by cyberbullies who are essentially their peers. 

Online impersonation is another top cybercrime to watch out for in 2017. Online impersonators can be classified into two categories based on their activities in Nigeria. The first category impersonates politicians and religious leaders on social media by creating fake profiles with the aim of scamming their victims. The second category usually creates fake profiles with attractive fake pictures so they can engage in what is called ‘romance scam’. The romance scam cybercriminals are mainly interested in targeting foreigners, claiming they are in love with them and establishing a love relation to be able

to swindle them.

2017 promises to be a busy year for cyber criminals in Nigeria as they up their game while Individuals, organisations and government will continue to play catch up game. Fighting cybercrime requires a collaboration of government, law enforcement agencies, private sector and general public. 

Remi Afon is the President, Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN)

LAGOS CANCELS MONTHLY ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION DAY

PRESS RELEASE . . .

…Urges Residents To Comply With Environmental Laws

The Lagos State Government on Wednesday terminated the monthly environmental sanitation exercise which hitherto held for three hours on the last Saturday of every month.

The State Government, in a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, said the decision to cancel the monthly exercise followed a resolution arrived at Wednesday’s Executive Council meeting which approved the need for a robust review of the environmental laws and procedures in the state in order to meet the present day challenges and to promote a clean and healthy environment.

The Government noted that considering the present economic situation in the country, it was no longer appropriate to restrict movement of people for three hours in a mega city like Lagos at a time they should be pursuing commercial and entrepreneurial activities.

According to government, in the last two decades, Lagos has grown exponentially into a mega city with the attendant huge environmental problems associated with managing a population of over twenty million people.

But sadly, the environmental laws, policies and procedures being practiced in the State have not been able to match the phenomenal growth and the dream of a 24-hour economy, hence the need for the reform.

Ayorinde said the State Government was not unaware of a recent Court of Appeal judgment.

According to him, the thrust of the fresh initiatives, among others, is to promote holistic and modern solutions to the unique environmental challenges confronting the State, while encouraging citizens to voluntarily partner with government to achieve the desired goals.

The Statement said: “After a careful consideration, the State Executive Council has therefore resolved that the present economic climate can no longer support the continued lock down of a mega city like Lagos, when the citizens should be free to engage in commercial and entrepreneurial activities that can promote economic growth and prosperity.

“Furthermore, Government will also accelerate the introduction of fresh reforms through the passage of the new harmonized environmental laws that will drive meaningful changes in areas of harmonized billing, waste management, modern Landfill sites, noise pollution, introduction of an Environmental Trust Fund and an Environmental Advisory Council.

“The Government wishes to reiterate its strong commitment to a clean and secure environment for the benefit of its citizens, and will continue to provide the necessary leadership to meet the environmental challenges of a mega city like Lagos. Lagosians and visitors alike are therefore urged to embrace these changes and imbibe a culture of voluntarily maintaining and preserving their environment to create a beautiful and healthy city that we all can be proud of.”

The statement added that the State Government would henceforth be tougher in ensuring expeditious enforcement against contraventions of its policies and regulations and as such, residents should voluntarily comply with the necessary laws and support government in its bid to have a clean and healthy environment.

SIGNED
STEVE AYORINDE
COMMISSIONER FOR INFORMATON & STRATEGY
LAGOS STATE
NOVEMBER 23, 2016

 

Investigations into Nigeria’s water crisis and illegal fishing in South Africa win impactAFRICA contest

Groundbreaking investigations into illegal fishing off South Africa’s coast and challenges around access to drinking water in Nigeria were selected as the winning stories of the water and sanitation round of the impactAFRICA data journalism initiative. The three winning journalists will receive an all-expenses paid study tours to major newsrooms in the United States, as part of theimpactAFRICA data journalism initiative.

The winning stories are:

South Africa All At Sea by Sipho Kings writing for the Mail & Guardian won recognition for Best Community Impact for his reportage on illegal fishing along South Africa's coast. Kings’ reportage helped dispel public confusion around South Africa (a maritime country) and the protection of its maritime assets, and for the first time offered citizens compelling explanations about how illegal fishing in these communities affects their livelihood and the industry. Kings’ writing has been cited in several seminars - including by members of the South African Navy - and in public debates on the issue. The follow-up mass media coverage on the issue sparked by Kings’ reportage is credited for prompting the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) and the navy to increase naval patrols, which led to a string of arrests of illegal fishing trawlers and their operators.

Dam Data: Water Data for Nigeria by Abiri Oluwatosin Niyi writing for CMapITwon recognition for Best Use of Data. This tool tracks data related to the supply and consumption of drinking water in Nigeria. Niyi launched the project after discovering that there were no easily accessible official data sources about Nigeria’s challenge to provide citizens with water. The project uses real-time data gathering and sharing system from both dam operators and citizens to monitor water distribution and produce journalistic reports on the trends by making use of a mobile app. Citizens are able to report on the quality of water supplied to them, whether the service providers are meeting promises and whether they are experiencing water scarcity. The underlying data is made available free for download and reuse by other media and citizen groups. Citizens are also able to monitor government expenditure of taxpayers money and transparency in order to collaborate with regulators to ensure equal access to water.

Ibadan: A City of Deep Wells and Dry Taps by Kolawole Talabi writing for theInternational Centre for Investigative Reporting (iCIR) won recognition for Best Audience Engagement. Talabi’s investigation details how plummeting government revenues from oil sales have led to reduced public expenditure on water supply in Nigeria’s third largest city, Ibadan, resulting in rapidly worsening health and hygiene for three million people. The reportage sparked intense online public debate, followed by a wave of calls for government to either immediately improve funding or to privatise water infrastructure and services in Ibadan. At the time of application, this story was the most read on the iCIR website and the website continues to track follow up reports.

impactAFRICA is the continent’s largest fund for data-driven investigative storytelling, offering $500,000 in cash grants and technology support, along with editorial mentorship, across a series of funding rounds for pioneering journalism that uses data or digital tools to tackle development issues such as public healthcare, water, sanitation, the effects of air and water pollution on African communities, climate change and its effects on farming communities and food baskets, and other development issues related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

This round saw journalists in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Zambia investigate water and sanitation issues between March 30 and June 30, 2016.

impactAFRICA’s next deadline for newsrooms to receive funding and support for investigative data-driven story projects is November 15. Get the detailshere.

The partners

Code for Africa (CfAfrica) is the custodian of impactAFRICA and is the continent’s largest independent open data and civic technology initiative. It operates as a federation of autonomous country-based digital innovation organisations that support ‘citizen labs’ in five countries and major projects in a further 15 countries. CfAfrica runs Africa’s OpenGov Fellowships and also embeds innovation fellows into newsrooms and social justice organisations to help liberate data of public interest, or to build tools that help empower citizens. In addition to fellowships and CitizenLabs, CfAfrica runs the $1 million per year innovateAFRICA fund and the $500,000 per year impactAFRICA fund, which both award seed grants to civic pioneers for experiments with everything from camera drones and environmental sensors, to encryption for whistleblowers and data-driven semantic analysis tools for investigative watchdogs. CfAfrica also curates continental resources such as the africanSPENDING portal of budget transparency resources, the openAFRICA data portal, the sourceAFRICA document repository and the connectedAFRICAtransparency toolkit for tracking the often hidden social networks and economic interests in politics. CfAfrica is an initiative of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).

International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is at the forefront of the news revolution. Its programmes empower journalists and engage citizens with new technologies and best practices. ICFJ’s networks of reporters and media entrepreneurs are transforming the field. ICFJ believes that better journalism leads to better lives. Over the past 30 years, ICFJ has worked with more than 92,000 professional and citizen journalists and media managers from 180 countries. ICFJ work through strong local partners, such as Code for Africa, and a network of dedicated alumni. For more information, go to www.icfj.org.