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ITU Strengthens Effort to Address Counterfeit ICT Devices

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10 years ago

July 29, 2014

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ITU discussions to address the growing problem of counterfeit ICT devices was actively participated, contributed to and progressed at the latest ITU-T SG11 (Protocols and test specifications) meeting held in Geneva this July.

A group of experts from various administrations and industry, as well as international organizations including the World Trade Organization (WTO), World Custom Organization (WCO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the Mobile Manufacturing Forum (MMF), contributed to the progress of the draft Technical Report on “Counterfeited and Substandard ICT Equipment”, which is anticipated as a baseline document for further developments in this area.

Several forums and conferences have called for ITU’s assistance in addressing the growing problem of counterfeit telecommunications/ICT products and devices, which is adversely affecting all stakeholders in the ICT field (vendors, governments, operators and consumers).

As a result, ITU-T SG11 agreed to revise the terms of reference of its Question 8(Q8/11) ‘Guidelines for implementations of signalling and protocols, and for addressing counterfeit ICT devices’, which is the group dealing with this work.

Isaac Boateng, National Communications Authority, Ghana, and Rapporteur of Q8/11said: “The study on Counterfeit ICT devices currently going on in SG11 was driven by Resolution 177 (Guadalajara, 2010) of the Plenipotentiary Conference, on Conformance and Interoperability which ‘instructs the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau, in close collaboration with the Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau and the Director of the Radio communication Bureau, to assist Member States in addressing their concerns with respect to counterfeit equipment’. I expect that the publication of the Technical Report could support the ITU Member States, particularly those in developing countries, to develop policies and regulatory framework to combat counterfeit devices in their national telecommunications/ICT strategies.”

An event on “Combating counterfeit and substandard ICT devices” will be taking place on 17 and 18 November 2014 at ITU Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland. Substandard and fake ICT products are a serious issue that impacts developed and developing economies, the ICT industry, as well as the consumer population around the world.

The objectives of this event are threefold, namely to: discuss the global scope and impact of counterfeiting and substandard ICT products on various stakeholders; highlight the common concerns, challenges, initiatives, practices and opportunities of the various stakeholders in their fight against counterfeiting and substandard ICT products; and examine the possible role of ICT standards development organizations (SDOs), and in particular the ITU, as part of the global strategy and solution to curtail counterfeiting and substandard ICT products.

The ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) also approved in Dubai (2014) a new Resolution on “The role of telecommunications/information and communication technologies in combating and dealing with counterfeit telecommunication/information and communication devices” (see draft final report Members restricted).

The next physical meetings of the group focusing on Counterfeiting in ITU-T (Q8/11) will take place back-to-back with the “Combating counterfeit and substandard ICT devices” event in ITU Headquarters on 19-21 November 2014. The Technical Report on “Counterfeited and Substandard ICT Equipment” will then be stable for approval. ITU Members are also invited to submit Contributions to Q8/11 to start new work items on this topic.

Gartner Warns Organizations of Data Lake Fallacy

The growing hype surrounding data lakes is causing substantial confusion in the information management space, according to Gartner, Inc. Several vendors are marketing data lakes as an essential component to capitalize on Big Data opportunities, but there is little alignment between vendors about what comprises a data lake, or how to get value from it.

“In broad terms, data lakes are marketed as enterprise-wide data management platforms for analyzing disparate sources of data in its native format,” said Nick Heudecker, research director at Gartner.

“The idea is simple: instead of placing data in a purpose-built data store, you move it into a data lake in its original format. This eliminates the upfront costs of data ingestion, like transformation. Once data is placed into the lake, it’s available for analysis by everyone in the organization.”

However, while the marketing hype suggests audiences throughout an enterprise will leverage data lakes, this positioning assumes that all those audiences are highly skilled at data manipulation and analysis, as data lakes lack semantic consistency and governed metadata.

“The need for increased agility and accessibility for data analysis is the primary driver for data lakes,” said Andrew White, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

“Nevertheless, while it is certainly true that data lakes can provide value to various parts of the organization, the proposition of enterprise-wide data management has yet to be realized.”

Data lakes focus on storing disparate data and ignore how or why data is used, governed, defined and secured. The data lake concept hopes to solve two problems, one old and one new. The old problem it tries to solve is information silos. Rather than having dozens of independently managed collections of data, you can combine these sources in the unmanaged data lake. The consolidation theoretically results in increased information use and sharing, while cutting costs through server and license reduction.

The new problem data lakes conceptually tackle pertains to Big Data initiatives. Big Data projects require a large amount of varied information.

The information is so varied that it’s not clear what it is when it is received, and constraining it in something as structured as a data warehouse or relational database management system (RDBMS) constrains future analysis.

“Addressing both of these issues with a data lake certainly benefits IT in the short term in that IT no longer has to spend time understanding how information is used — data is simply dumped into the data lake,” said Mr. White.

“However, getting value out of the data remains the responsibility of the business end user. Of course, technology could be applied or added to the lake to do this, but without at least some semblance of information governance, the lake will end up being a collection of disconnected data pools or information silos all in one place.”

Data lakes therefore carry substantial risks. The most important is the inability to determine data quality or the lineage of findings by other analysts or users that have found value, previously, in using the same data in the lake. By its definition, a data lake accepts any data, without oversight or governance.

Without descriptive metadata and a mechanism to maintain it, the data lake risks turning into a data swamp. And without metadata, every subsequent use of data means analysts start from scratch.

Another risk is security and access control. Data can be placed into the data lake with no oversight of the contents.

Many data lakes are being used for data whose privacy and regulatory requirements are likely to represent risk exposure. The security capabilities of central data lake technologies are still embryonic. These issues will not be addressed if left to non-IT personnel.

Finally, performance aspects should not be overlooked. Tools and data interfaces simply cannot perform at the same level against a general-purpose store as they can against optimized and purpose-built infrastructure. For these reasons, Gartner recommends that organizations focus on semantic consistency and performance in upstream applications and data stores instead of information consolidation in a data lake.

“Data lakes typically begin as ungoverned data stores,” said Mr. Heudecker. “Meeting the needs of wider audiences require curated repositories with governance, semantic consistency and access controls — elements already found in a data warehouse.

“The fundamental issue with the data lake is that it makes certain assumptions about the users of information,” said Mr. Heudecker.

“It assumes that users recognize or understand the contextual bias of how data is captured, that they know how to merge and reconcile different data sources without ‘a priori knowledge’ and that they understand the incomplete nature of datasets, regardless of structure.”

While these assumptions may be true for users working with data, such as data scientists, the majority of business users lack this level of sophistication or support from operational information governance routines. Developing or acquiring these skills or obtaining such support on an individual basis, is both time-consuming and expensive, or impossible.

“There is always value to be found in data but the question your organization has to address is this — do we allow or even encourage one-off, independent analysis of information in silos or a data lake, bringing said data together, or do we formalize to a degree that effort, and try to sustain the value-generating skills we develop?” said Mr. White.

“If the option is the former, it is quite likely that a data lake will appeal. If the decision tends toward the latter, it is beneficial to move beyond a data lake concept quite quickly in order to develop a more robust logical data warehouse strategy.”

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ALTON, ATCON Urge FG to Address Telecoms Industry Challenges

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12 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Chike Onwuegbuchi

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The Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) and The Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), representing Mobile Network Operators and telecommunication companies in Nigeria, are calling upon the government to take decisive action in addressing the numerous challenges confronting the telecommunications industry.

In a statement jointly signed by Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman of ALTON and Engr. Tony Izuagbe Emoekpere, ATCON President, the associations underscored the urgent need for collaborative efforts between the public and private sectors to overcome obstacles hindering the sector’s growth and development.

Infrastructure Deficits: ALTON & ATCON members still lack access to essential telecommunication services due to a myriad of challenges, including multiple taxation and regulations and prohibitive Right of Way (RoW) charges, inadequate electric power supply and vandalism of telecommunications infrastructure.

Protection of Assets and Network Infrastructure: Advocating for legislation that

designates telecommunications infrastructure as Critical National Infrastructure (“CNI”): Both Associations expressed deep concern over the escalating security threats facing telecommunications infrastructure in Nigeria.

Telecommunications infrastructure undisputedly plays a pivotal role in Nigeria’s national security and socioeconomic growth, especially as the country currently contends with multiple security challenges that require urgent and immediate actions in response to these threats.

Attacks on cell towers, fibre optic cables, and other critical assets disrupt telecommunications services and result in significant financial losses for operators.

The associations urge the government to prioritize the security of telecommunications infrastructure and collaborate with law enforcement agencies to enhance protection measures and combat vandalism and sabotage effectively.

Cost-Reflective Tariff of Services: ALTON and ATCON respectfully reiterate that telecommunications infrastructure development requires substantial investments in network expansion, maintenance, and technology upgrades.

Despite the adverse economic headwinds, the telecommunications industry remains the only industry yet to review its general service pricing framework upward in the last (11) years, primarily due to regulatory constraints.

For a fully liberalized and deregulated sector, the current price control mechanism, which is not aligned with economic realities, threatens the industry’s sustainability and can erode investors’ confidence.

ATCON and ALTON call upon the government to facilitate a constructive dialogue with industry stakeholders to address pricing challenges and establish a framework that balances consumers’ affordability with operators’ financial viability.

Regulatory Independence: ALTON & ATCON advocates for the sustenance of a culture of independence in the regulatory landscape to safeguard against undue influence and unwholesome incursion into the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) or (Commission) domain, which will inspire trust in the telecommunications sector and encourage investment.

Regulatory neutrality and independence are crucial to ensuring a thriving telecommunications sector. Statutory provisions lend credence to this notion, as a lack of an impartial regulator will lead to a failure to maintain public confidence in the objectivity and independence of its decisions.

ALTON and ATCON reaffirms its commitment to working collaboratively with the government to address the challenges facing the telecommunications industry in Nigeria.

By fostering a conducive regulatory environment, prioritizing infrastructure development, enhancing security measures, and facilitating pricing adjustments, the government can unlock the full potential of Nigeria’s telecommunications sector, driving economic growth and societal development.

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Qualcomm Shortlists Startups for Qualcomm Make in Africa 2024 and Awards 2023 Wireless Reach Social Impact Fund

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12 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Chike Onwuegbuchi

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Qualcomm Incorporated today announced the shortlisted startups for Qualcomm Make in Africa 2024, as well as the winner of the 2023 Wireless Reach Social Impact Fund.

The Qualcomm Africa Innovation Platform, now in its second year, aims to work with and support the development of Africa’s emerging technology ecosystem by providing mentorship, education, and training programs with a focus on 5G, Edge-AI/ML, Compute, and IoT. This year, Qualcomm received an overwhelming response, with approximately 250 applications from 30 countries.

Highlights: 

Startup cohort announced for 2024 Qualcomm Make in Africa startup incubation program featuring technologies.
Announcement of the awardee of the 2023 Wireless Reach Social Impact Fund, supporting startups in scaling their societal and market impact.
Development of L2Pro Africa website content nears completion, providing free online training on intellectual property protection.

As the first initiative of its kind in Africa, Qualcomm Make in Africa is an equity-free mentorship program that identifies promising early-stage startups keen on applying advanced connectivity and processing technologies such as 5G, Edge-AI/ML, Compute, and IoT to innovative end-to-end systems solutions, including hardware.

These startups have demonstrated exceptional potential in applying advanced connectivity and processing technologies to innovative end-to-end systems solutions.

The selected startups will receive free mentorship, business coaching, access to engineering consultation for product development, and guidance on protecting intellectual property. The 2024 cohort includes the following startups (listed in alphabetical order):

Aurora Health from Kenya provides AI-based cardiovascular health care tools
CropScan from Kenya uses solar-powered smart farming IoT devices
Cure Bionics from Tunisia makes smart 3D printed prosthetic arms
DevisionX from Egypt provides AI-based low-code computer vision tools
Kalio from Cameroon is building AI tools for Agricultural IoT
Kitovu from Nigeria provides tools and software for smart agricultural warehouse management
NextAI Studios from Kenya builds AI-based emotion detection into toys for children’s mental healthcare
RIM Nextgen from Kenya, uses smart tools for monitoring propane consumption
Sparcx from South Africa uses AI for enhancing radar signal processing
Vizmerald from Tunisia, is working on AI-based textile industry inspection

Qualcomm is also proud to announce the awardee of the 2023 Wireless Reach Social Impact Fund. This fund, provided by Qualcomm through its Qualcomm® Wireless Reach™ Initiative, aims to support startups in scaling their societal and market impact.

Ecorich Solutions Limited, a female-founded organization based in Nairobi, Kenya, will be awarded funding to help scale the impact of their smart organic food composter.

Wireless Reach funding will support Ecorich to address the dual challenge of organic waste management and the need for sustainable agricultural practices, with the goal of reducing environmental pollution, improving crop yields for farmers, and mitigating waste-related health risks for communities.

The other nine startups from the 2023 cohort will also receive valuable stipends to continue fueling their growth. These startups have showcased innovative uses of wireless technology to address pressing needs in their communities.

In addition, Qualcomm is excited to highlight the progress of the L2Pro Africa IP e-learning Platform, a free online training program designed to empower startups, SMEs, and researchers in Africa to protect, secure, and maximize their innovations. This program has been created in collaboration with Adams and Adams, Africa’s leading intellectual property (IP) law firm.

The education content has been updated with individual filing procedures for patents, industrial designs, and trademarks in the countries of Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Rwanda and within the two African patent organizations, ARIPO and OAPI.

These step-by-step descriptions of per-country filing requirements empower inventors to interact effectively with IP professionals such as an IP attorney and their respective IP offices.

“I am thrilled with the overwhelming response to the Africa Innovation Platform this year,” said Alex Rogers, President, QTL & Global Affairs, Qualcomm Incorporated.

“The quality and diversity of the applications received reflect the immense talent and potential within Africa’s technology ecosystem.

“We are excited to work with the shortlisted startups and provide them with the necessary resources and support to drive innovation and create a positive impact in their communities.”

“We applaud Qualcomm for launching the second year of its Innovate in Africa Platform, which not only equips the upcoming generation of African entrepreneurs with expertise in pivotal areas like AI/ML, healthcare, agri-tech, smart cities, and communications but also empowers them to safeguard their intellectual property through the complimentary L2ProAfrica program.”, said John Omo, secretary general, African Telecommunications Union (ATU).

Mr. Omo also emphasized that the ATU remains steadfast in its commitment to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship across the continent. “Our youth innovation program, among other initiatives, plays a crucial role in cultivating the talents and aspirations of Africa’s young visionaries,” he affirmed. “We are ready to collaborate with additional partners to realize this objective.”

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Mastercard and CEBIH join forces to bolster cybersecurity in Nigeria

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12 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Ugo Onwuaso

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Mastercard, in collaboration with the Committee of E-Banking Industry Heads for Nigeria (CeBIH), recently hosted the second edition of its annual Fraud Forum in Lagos, Nigeria. Building on the success of the inaugural edition in 2023, this year’s forum convened key industry players ranging from financial institutions, payment service banks, and fintech companies, to discuss critical issues such as threats and vulnerability, intel-sharing, and best practices in combating industry risks.

The cybersecurity event, attended by key public and private sector actors, also covered the regional threat landscape based on Mastercard’s strategic threat intelligence data. This timely intervention is crucial in a region where cyberattacks remain prevalent, especially amidst Nigeria’s rapid economic expansion and widespread adoption of digital financial services.

Recent data from the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) revealed a staggering 276% increase in fraud-related losses within Nigeria’s deposit banks, underscoring the need for continuous vigilance and proactive cybersecurity strategies within the financial sector. In response to the escalating threats amid Nigeria’s bourgeoning financial landscape, key government bodies have called for enhanced collaboration within the payment systems’ ecosystem to curtail the rise in E-Fraud in the country.

“We are excited to continue the Fraud Forum in Nigeria,” said Kari Tukur, Vice President, Customer and Solutions Center, West & East Africa, Mastercard. “With cyberattacks posing serious challenges within the Nigerian financial ecosystem, we take pride in establishing a platform where key stakeholders can convene, network, and exchange best practices to safeguard against potential vulnerabilities. Mastercard remains committed to creating unique and essential solutions to help business owners protect themselves and their customers against vulnerabilities, and this platform provides us with an opportunity to drive knowledge regarding these solutions as we aim to elevate cybersecurity standards and ensure the resilience of the Nigerian financial ecosystem.”

The forum delved into various aspects of cybersecurity, including common attack methods used by cyber criminals, their motivations, the assets they target, and the best practices to safeguard against attacks. Attendees gained valuable insights into the regional cyber threat landscape, with a focus on the financial services sector, which has become a prime target for cybercriminals in recent years. It also presented an avenue for Mastercard to showcase its latest fraud prevention techniques and tools, including the Mastercard Decision Intelligence, a real-time authorization decisioning solution that empowers issuers to approve more genuine transactions while effectively managing risk.

“We are delighted to partner with Mastercard on another edition of the Mastercard Fraud Forum in Nigeria. This event continues to serve as a pivotal platform for industry leaders, stakeholders, and experts to convene and address the evolving landscape of fraud and cybersecurity challenges, especially in a period marked by increased sophistication. With this year’s edition, we continue to deepen our commitment to fostering collaboration and implementing effective strategies to combat fraud and safeguard the integrity of the financial ecosystem.” Temitope Onibaniyi, Secretary, Emerging Payments of CeBIH, representing Celestina Appeal, the CeBIH Chairman, added.

The forum aligns with Mastercard’s goal of providing clarity to the complex cybersecurity landscape, in a bid to foster an ecosystem where digital transactions are built on trust. As part of its commitment to combating fraud, Mastercard also announced that it will be sponsoring the CeBIH Quarterly Sessions for the second consecutive year, bringing together industry experts to discuss the latest trends in fraud prevention and share best practices for protecting customers.

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