E-Business
Cashless Regime: Experts Warn of Dangers of Storage, Ring Solution
Data experts have painted a gloomy outlook for financial institutions and IT firms in the country in view of the expected explosion in information generation in the current cashless regime urging for a simplified storage facility, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek has learnt. The experts who gathered at the recent Storage Optimization Summit organized by Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) in conjunction with the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) x-rayed a range of storage enhancement innovations pioneered through their synergy. The innovations according to them can underpin the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) policy on cashless economy by compressing information and reducing costs. Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that statistically, information storage requirements grow between 20-40 per cent annually and may expand to 80 per cent. In the cashless regime, financial institutions may come out worse off because of dearth of simplified storage structures. Oluwaseyi Obiyemi, client technical specialist, IBM West Africa, said that smarter systems are creating information explosion currently in Zettabytes, citing that companies that budgeted one to five per cent for storage facilities are presently struggling to maintain the tempo with attendant costs. The client technical specialist, stated that IBM’s $500 million splash on research and development annually has been yielding positive results in terms of a range of apparatus it produced to contain the looming danger of data loss by companies. He said: “Very few banks have good back up solution recovery of data; that is, their backs up automated machines are not optimally perfect. Basically, big organizations that don’t attach much importance to data might not really know the harm. However, IBM solutions are cost effective technologies meant for data compression and duplications. “In other words, we are looking at companies having the right information at the right places, while managing space. Through automated tiering, automated data migration, banks can store more with what is on the floor by virtualization and thin provisioning. This will save the corporate bodies some stress, litigation and loss of valuable data”. Obiyemi said Obiyemi added that IBM’s Storwize V7000 can help corporate bodies simplify complex IT infrastructure, particularly to lower ongoing costs, improve flexibility and reduce demands on technical staff. Nodding in agreement, Emeka Udaya, storage business development manager, Tri-Continental Ltd, said that the challenges of data protection spurred by data growth in the last few months has exposed the incapacity of storage facilities, that take longer time to back up. He said that “Apart from that, some companies thought they could maneuver the situation by acquiring more storage facilities like disks, but they end up in higher service land requirements (spaces for the facilities). “And the need to keep data intact could be envisaged in the banks merger and acquisition that deal, particularly with existing data; security challenges; remote or branch offices operation and back up on silos-the cost of managing tapes attached to servers are increasing by the day,” he added. Udaya mentioned a number of solutions the synergy between Computer Warehouse Group and IBM have introduced under Trivoli Storage Manpower to include, TSM Server products, Bare Machine Recovery; Desktop/Laptop; Application protection and Space management archiving. Earlier, Dayo Abegunde, general manager, CWL Systems; a subsidiary of CWG, said with evolving delivery models, the IT industry is changing, particularly for the banking sector that is engaged in outsourcing, low head count, managed service. Meanwhile, “Delivery requirements must be demonstrated with better or enhanced platform.” Abegunde, who represented the Austin Okere, group chief executive officer, Computer Warehouse Group, noted that although the resources spent on IT by organization has continued to grow, however, ‘keeping the Light On, demands strategizing. He said that CWG in collaboration with IBM, a renowned leader and pioneer in the IT industry, organized the summit geared towards educating their customers on how to achieve better storage utilization and sharing of data across servers’ clients while helping to lower the risks and costs associated with the installation of a SAN solution. He said this will bring about, “Lower lifecycle costs thanks to innovative storage architectures that lower both capital and operational expenses; virtualized storage in order to reduce skills requirement; easy tie-ring to match value of data to the cost of the storage system and improved data storage to reduce costs and boost efficiency.”
Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) experts at the 10th annual Cyber Security Weekend – META 2025 held recently, talked about supply chain attacks and reported that by the end of 2024 a total of 14,000 malicious packages were found in open-source projects, a 48% increase compared to the end of 2023. 42 million versions of open-source packages have been examined by Kaspersky throughout 2024 in search for vulnerabilities.
Open-source is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance. Popular open-source packages include GoMod, Maven, NuGet, npm, PyPI, and others.
These are tools that power countless applications and help developers easily find, install, and manage pre-built code libraries, making it simpler to build software by reusing code others have written. Attackers take advantage of the popularity of these and other packages.
In March 2025, the Lazarus Group was reported to have deployed several malicious npm packages, which were downloaded multiple times before removal. These packages contained malware to steal credentials, cryptocurrency wallet data, and deploy backdoors, targeting developers’ systems across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The attack leveraged GitHub repositories for added legitimacy, highlighting the group’s sophisticated supply chain tactics. Kaspersky’s GReAT also found other npm packages related to this attack. Malicious npm packages could have been integrated into web development, cryptocurrency platforms, and enterprise software, risking widespread data theft and financial losses.
In 2024, a sophisticated backdoor was discovered in XZ Utils versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1, a widely used compression library in Linux distributions. Inserted by a trusted contributor, the malicious code targeted SSH servers, enabling remote command execution and threatening countless systems globally.
Detected before widespread exploitation due to performance anomalies, the incident highlighted the dangers of supply chain attacks. XZ Utils is integral to operating systems, cloud servers, and IoT devices, making its compromise a threat to critical infrastructure and enterprise networks.
In 2024, Kaspersky’s GReAT discovered that attackers uploaded malicious Python packages like chatgpt-python and chatgpt-wrapper to PyPI, mimicking legitimate tools for interacting with ChatGPT APIs.
These packages, designed to steal credentials and deploy backdoors, capitalised on the popularity of AI development to trick developers into downloading them. These packages could have been used in AI development, chatbot integrations, and data analytics platforms, endangering sensitive AI workflows and user data.
“Open-source software is the backbone of many modern solutions, but its openness is being weaponised. The 50% rise in malicious packages by the end of 2024 shows attackers are actively embedding sophisticated backdoors and data stealers in popular packages, which millions rely on.
“Without rigorous vetting and real-time monitoring, a single compromised package can trigger a global breach. Organisations need to secure the supply chain before the next XZ Utils-level attack succeeds,” comments Dmitry Galov, Head of Research Center for Russia and CIS at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team.
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into allegations that the confidentiality and integrity of candidates’ personal data may have been compromised by hackers.
The Commission initiated the inquiry following concerns over possible data breaches during examinations.
Preliminary findings indicate that several examination centres may not have implemented adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard candidates’ personal information, as required under data protection regulations.
Although the incident reportedly affected 379, 997 candidates, the NDPC’s investigation is poised to cover a systemic audit of data processing and third parties.
It will be recalled that JAMB recently admitted that a technical error on its platform affected a total of 379,997 candidates in 157 examination centres across Lagos and the South-East.
Further investigation led to the arrest of at least 20 suspects who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force.
Cyber security firm, Kaspersky, has once again warned that sophisticated cybercriminals increasingly target Africa as ransomware and advanced persistent threats (APTs) escalate across the region.
Speaking at the company’s annual Cyber Security Weekend for the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region, the cybersecurity firm’s Global Research and Analysis Team highlighted growing digital threats affecting African nations.
Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa emerged as hotspots, with Kenya recording one of the highest web threat incident rates at 20.1% in first quarter 2025.
“While ransomware is less prevalent in Africa due to lower levels of digitisation and economic constraints, countries like South Africa and Nigeria are seeing a sharp rise in attacks,” said Sergey Lozhkin, head of META and APAC regions at Kaspersky.
Kaspersky noted a 0.01 percentage point increase in African ransomware cases year-on-year, reaching 0.41%, still below global and Middle Eastern averages, but a troubling sign for the continent’s emerging digital infrastructure.
Experts warned that attackers are refining their tactics, shifting focus to unconventional entry points like IoT devices, smart appliances, and misconfigured hardware.
“As these economies expand digitally, sectors such as manufacturing, finance and government are becoming key targets,” said Lozhkin
The cyber-crime landscape is evolving quickly, fuelled by AI tools and dark web access to large language models, which enable less skilled actors to launch convincing phishing and malware campaigns.
Groups like FunkSec, which uses AI-generated code and a low-cost ransom model, are redefining ransomware operations.
“African organisations face the dual challenge of expanding digital footprints and limited cybersecurity awareness. This makes layered defense strategies, including network segmentation, real-time monitoring and regular staff training, essential,” stated Lozhkin
Kaspersky continues to monitor 25 active APT groups in the META region, including SideWinder and MuddyWater, some of which are known to target African institutions.
To bolster defenses, the firm recommends using tools such as its free Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business and the Kaspersky Next suite for threat visibility and response.
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