Many people in Kenya pay rent using mobile money. Around the end of the month, I usually receive messages such as the ones shown, pretending to be from my landlord, and asking me to pay my rent to a new account. I’m sure these messages are sent to many phone numbers, hoping that some will… Read More »
In March 2024, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, the country’s largest commercial bank, had a technical “glitch” that allowed customers to withdraw more money than they had in their accounts. The glitch lasted for several hours before the bank froze all transactions. News of the glitch spread rapidly on social media, particularly among university students,… Read More »
On 9th January 2024, Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi posted, on Facebook, a story that apparently someone, let’s call him ‘M,’ had sent to him. To summarise, M’s car had been broken into “right at the entrance gate” of Coptic Hospital in Nairobi. When M spoke to the G4S security guards at the Hospital, he said… Read More »
What Is Ransomware? Ransomware is a type of malware (malicious software) that is used to encrypt or scramble files on a computer system, thus making the system unusable, after which the attacker demands payment (ransom) in exchange for enabling the victim to decrypt and regain access to the files. Instructions are normally given that the… Read More »
Updated on 26th January 2024 The Situation We use passwords on many different websites in modern life. You probably have several different accounts that you log in to using a username and password. For example, you may have: A Gmail address A Yahoo (or even Hotmail!) address, especially if you are of a certain age… Read More »
Updated on 26th January 2024 Last week my six-year-old son was introduced to cybersecurity principles and practices. Okay, it was not really his first interaction. What happened was that I came into the sitting room and found him crying. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “I have forgotten the password of my tablet,” he said. He had… Read More »