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Oracle Brings Converged Infrastructure to the Communications Industry

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Oracle has brought its converged infrastructure strategy to the communications industry with the Netra Modular System, the first integrated platform to merge traditional blade and rackmount architectures, networking and storage to support network function virtualization (NFV).

NFV uses traditional IT and server virtualization techniques to implement network functions as software that can run on industry-standard servers.

With the Netra Modular System, NFV can help reduce capital and operational expenditures and accelerate product and service introduction.

“Reducing costs, maximizing constrained resources, getting services to market faster — the business and IT challenges facing service providers, network equipment providers, and others in the communications industry remain ever-present,” said Raju Penumatcha, senior vice president, Netra Systems and Networking, Oracle.

“Netra Modular System capitalizes on Oracle’s ability to engineer hardware and software together to deliver NFV infrastructure with Oracle’s latest servers, software and networking all managed, supported, and upgradable as an integrated platform.”

Netra Modular System is a quick-to-deploy, pre-integrated platform that can help customers accelerate application and service development, reduce risk and lower maintenance costs. It supports Oracle Server X5-2 and Oracle’s new Netra Server X5-2, allowing customers to choose either industry-standard or carrier-grade rackmount servers designed for high-performance communication workloads and cloud infrastructure deployments.

Netra Server X5-2 offers 10x the number of cores, 1.5x more memory and 2x the storage capacity compared to the previous generation. SPARC platform support is also planned for 2016, which is slated to make the Netra Modular System a multi-instruction set architecture and multi-operating system platform.

“Dialogic has used Oracle’s Netra systems for many years in successfully delivering Dialogic’s ControlSwitch™ System — an unmatched Class 4 softswitch and IMS MGCF — to top service providers worldwide,” said Jim Machi, senior vice president of product management and marketing at Dialogic.

“Whether they are deploying NGN or VoLTE networks, today’s service providers demand an ever-increasing level of performance, expandability, reliability and serviceability in telecoms infrastructure platforms. We look forward to delivering even higher performing solutions to our customers with Oracle’s new Netra systems. Dialogic and its customers value Oracle’s high quality and highly reliable Netra products.”

“As communications service providers seek infrastructure to support NFV, Oracle’s Netra Modular System offers a new architecture that incorporates the best of bladed systems and independent rackmount servers in a single platform,” said David Krozier, principal analyst at Ovum.

“This new infrastructure platform should be particularly attractive to communications customers who want to virtualize their compute, network and storage infrastructure based on high volume general market products, but still need to support five 9’s or greater availability. The Netra Modular System’s ability to interface with OpenStack and utilize Oracle SDN and virtual network services makes it a compelling solution for NFV.”

While ideal for NFV infrastructure, Netra Modular System can also be used in virtually any industry where customers want an integrated, virtualized platform with the benefits of a blade architecture.

Netra Modular System supports Oracle Linux, Oracle Solaris and Oracle VM, as well as OpenStack and the Hardware Platform Interface (HPI), giving customers a choice of operating systems as well as the ability to create cloud-based services and provide nearly continuous service availability. For added flexibility, other Linux distributions and hypervisors can be used.


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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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