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EMEA Flash Storage Market Records $2.9Bn Value in 2014- IDC

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Flash storage is one of the disruptive technologies that are changing the game in the European storage market. Though it is a relatively new technology and many vendors have only entered the European market in the past 12–18 months, customer adoption is already soaring, according to a forthcoming special study from International Data Corporation (IDC).

Performance-hungry workloads like virtual infrastructures and databases in particular are being deployed on flash systems and demand for flash systems continues to grow, the study shows.

Despite this being a relatively new storage market segment, the external flash storage market in EMEA is expected to reach a total value of $2.9 billion in 2014, showing year-on-year growth of 32%.

The total capacity shipped with flash-powered arrays is expected to hit 3.53 exabytes in 2014.

Flash-powered arrays can be divided into two groups.

Hybrid flash arrays (HFAs) are the main category in the market, given their ability to reach an almost comparable performance with an all-flash system, but with considerably lower $/GB.

All-flash array (AFA) systems, although posting impressive 302% year-on-year growth in user value in 2014, remain a single-point solution in the datacenter, with broader adoption hindered by the still high $/GB price gap compared with spinning media.

Western Europe accounted for roughly 75% of total EMEA flash market value in 2014, with adoption spreading from the U.K. to Germany, France, the Nordics, and Benelux, traditionally first adopters of new technologies, with southern European countries following closely.

Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (CEMA) follows suit with Western Europe in terms of HFA penetration in EMEA with the highest adoption seen in Russia, South Africa, Israel, and the Gulf countries. AFA demand is still very nascent in the emerging markets, with significant growth potential mostly from the Middle East subregion.

“European organizations have quickly adopted flash storage systems for their performance-sensitive workloads,” said Silvia Cosso, Western European storage analyst at IDC. “Now that all the major vendors have flash-powered arrays in their portfolio, and startups continue to push AFA into the market, competitive differentiation will come from data management capabilities and price. Future penetration of flash in the datacenter is dependent on how quickly the $/GB value will continue to decline.”

Forecasts

The flash storage systems market is a fast-growing segment of the EMEA storage systems market.

IDC forecasts that total flash-optimized market value will grow at 15% CAGR from 2013 through 2018.

The AFA market alone is expected to show an impressive 58% CAGR during the same forecast period, and will account for about 15% of EMEA’s total flash market by 2018.

Growth is mainly fuelled by a drop in flash $/GB value, which is expected to fall by more than 70% from 2014 to 2018, as well as mainstream acceptance of flash systems for a broader range of workloads.

“HFA systems will still play a leading role in the EMEA market, with all tier 1 applications and some of the tier 2 switching to hybrid by 2018,” said Marina Kostova, CEMA storage analyst at IDC. “However, in the longer term, the general-purpose workloads are expected to move to AFA, thanks to likely future advancements in non-volatile flash memory and the falling cost of raw flash prices. Spinning media will not be entirely displaced from the datacenter, however, and will mainly be confined to backup environments and cold data storage.”


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Firm Reports a 48% Increase in Malicious Packages Threatening Software Supply Chains

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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.


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NDPC Probes Suspected Data Breach in Examination Centres

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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.

NDPC Probes Suspected Data Breach in Examination Centres

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.

 

 

 


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Nigeria Among Hotspots as Kaspersky Warns of Rising Ransomware Threat in Africa

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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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