E-Business
FireEye Inaugurates Labs Advanced Reverse Engineering Team, Challenge
FireEye, a renowned network security company, announced on Monday the formation of the FireEye Labs Advanced Reverse Engineering Team and Challenge, also known as FLARE
FireEye is known for the provision of automated threat forensics and dynamic malware protection against advanced cyber threats, such as advanced persistent threats and spear phishing.
Mike Sikorski, advanced malware, Threat Research, FireEye Inc., who made the announcement said that as part of FireEye Labs, the focus of the team is to support all of FireEye and Mandiant from a reverse engineering standpoint.
Many FireEye groups have reversing engineering needs: Global Services discovers malware during incident response, Managed Defense constantly discovers threats on monitored client networks, and Products benefit from in-depth reversing to help improve detection capabilities.
“We primarily focus on malware analysis, but we also perform red-teaming of software and organizations, and we develop tools to assist reverse engineering. Our research and tools assist with automatic malware triage to quickly get initial results out to incident responders in the field. Auto-unpackers unravel obfuscated samples without the need for an analyst.
“Automatic clustering and classifying samples helps identify if a binary is good or bad and whether we have analyzed it before. We develop reverse engineering scripts for IDA Pro and systems that help us quickly share our analysis results. We also write scripts that can help incident responders decrypt and interpret malware network traffic and host artifacts,” he said.
Sikorski added that the elite technical enclave of reversers, malware analysts, researchers, and teachers, will team up with our FireEye Labs peers to help bring the best detection to FireEye customers and promote knowledge sharing with the security research community.
“We’ll continue to provide technical training on malware analysis privately and at conferences like Black Hat. Look for us to present webinars on malware analysis and a blog series of scripts for IDA Pro to aid reverse engineering of malware,” he added.
On the challenge, he said, “To commemorate the launch, the FLARE team is hosting a challenge for all reverse engineers and malware analysts. We invite you to compete and test your skills. The challenge runs the gamut of skills we believe are necessary to succeed on the FLARE team. We invite everyone who is interested to solve the challenge and get their just reward!
“The puzzles were developed by Richard Wartell, a reverse engineer with a PhD in “IDA Pro” (actually Computer Science, but his thesis used IDA Pro) from the University of Texas at Dallas where he worked on binary rewriting techniques for the x86 instruction set. He recently presented this work at the REcon conference in Montreal. At Mandiant Richard focused on incident response, but now on the FLARE team he reverse engineers malware, teaches malware classes, and helps develop our auto-unpacking technology.
“As reverse engineers we’ve seen a variety of anti-reverse engineering techniques. Oftentimes the armoring malware authors employ is sophisticated and requires time to unravel. Sometimes it is misguided and easily circumvented.
“Writing these binary puzzles has given us a chance to recreate some of the sophisticated (and sometimes ridiculous) techniques we see. The seven puzzles start with basic skills and escalate quickly to more difficult reversing tasks. At FLARE we have to deal with whatever challenges come our way, so the challenge reflects this. If you take on the challenge you might see malicious PDFs, .NET binaries, obfuscated PHP, Javascript, x86, x64, PE, ELF, Mach-O, and so on.
“And after completing the final challenge, you’ll win a prize and be contacted by a FLARE team member”.
Nigerian government, through the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has announced a strategic collaboration to strengthen cybersecurity and clean up the nation’s cyberspace.
Recognizing that cybercrime knows no borders, Nigeria also reaffirmed its commitment to fostering stronger global partnerships within the cybersecurity ecosystem.
This announcement was made during a press conference before the inaugural National Cybersecurity Conference, which is scheduled to take place in Abuja from July 9th to 11th, 2025.
Sa’ad Abubakar, national cybersecurity coordinator from the Office of National Security Advisor, said fighting cybercrime must take the whole of society and the whole of the government approach.
According to him, “Apart from the deterrent approach whereby government agencies such as Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrest individuals, take them to court and prosecute them, the youth can be nurtured into better citizens who can showcase their capacity in better ways and be useful to the country.”
Similarly, Kashifu Abdullahi, director-general, NITDA, also stressed the need for collaborative efforts in fighting cybercrimes.
According to him “Then, in addition to that, we also want to build a stronger global collaboration with the global cyber security ecosystem, because when you look at cybercrime in general, it doesn’t respect the borders.
“Someone can commit a crime from Ghana using a Nigerian ID in the US. So you can look at him physically in a different jurisdiction, pretending to be in another jurisdiction, committing the crime in another jurisdiction.
“So without that kind of synergy and working together, it will be difficult to address these challenges. The third one is challenge. The third one is getting an alternative to cybercrime for our kids in Nigeria. We have this as a major challenge.”
Inuwa further highlighted the upcoming conference’s importance, noting that it would tackle key issues through workshops, discussions on emerging threats, cross-border cybersecurity collaboration strategies, and training programmes.
He also announced that the National Cybersecurity Conference 2025 would feature the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards, recognising top contributions in the field.
The DG extended an invitation to global partners to collaborate with Nigeria in building a safer digital future.
The press conference was attended by notable figures, including Ahmad Sa’ad Abubakar, National Coordinator of, the National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre (NCCC); Hanniel Jafar, Representative of the President, of Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN); Ankit Shukla, Managing Director, QNA Marketing Management LLC and members of the press and other stakeholders.
XIAN Telecom has acquired an 8% stake in pan-African e-commerce company Jumia Technologies, citing the platform’s fintech and logistics strengths as key drivers of its backing.
This marks the first major telecom investment in Jumia since MTN Group’s exit in 2020.
AXIAN, a fast-growing telecom and digital services provider with operations across Africa, disclosed the purchase in a Schedule 13D filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
While the financial terms were not disclosed, AXIAN Telecom CEO, Hassan Jaber, described the move as a strategic alignment with Jumia’s growth trajectory and digital ecosystem.
“Jumia’s achievements in digital retail and fintech, particularly through JumiaPay and its logistics network, make it a very attractive investment for us. We believe in Jumia’s potential to promote financial and economic inclusion, which aligns with our core values,” said Jaber.
Once dubbed the “Amazon of Africa,” Jumia became the first African-founded tech company to list on the New York Stock Exchange in 2019.
But years of underperformance, leadership changes, and competitive pressures dented investor confidence.
In October 2020, South Africa’s MTN Group offloaded its 18.9% stake for $138 million, well below the $698 million value it once held post-IPO.
Since then, Jumia has undergone a significant transformation. Under CEO Francis Dufay, appointed in 2022, the company exited low-performing markets like South Africa and Tunisia, cut costs, and doubled down on core markets – Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Morocco.
The firm is now focused on high-growth verticals, including everyday essentials and digital financial services.
Jumia’s regional CEO for East Africa, Vinod Goel, recently revealed plans to scale up international brand offerings and open its logistics network to third-party businesses.
Jaber underscored that AXIAN Telecom’s investment signals renewed confidence in Jumia’s long-term potential.
The telecom firm’s CEO said the company views Jumia as a key player in advancing Africa’s digital economy, aligning with AXIAN’s mission through its fintech and digital infrastructure brands such as Yas and Mixx by Yas.
Abisoye Coker-Odusote, director general, National Identity management commission (NIMC) has said that the commission is set to register 95 percent of Nigerians into the National Identity Database before December 2025.
Abisoye Coker-Odusote,, DG, NIMC
She made this statement at a press briefing to highlight the commissions goal aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly on digital governance and inclusive development.
The mass enrollment drive will be powered by a combination of improved infrastructure, expanded registration centres, and robust public sensitization campaigns.
As of May 2025, NIMC reports over 120 million Nigerians have been enrolled, and about 100 million more would be captured by December.
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