The World Cup, Information Privacy, and Data Insecurity in Africa

Kato Mivule | June 8, 2010
With the World Cup fever high, ZDNET published an article showing an increase in cybercrime activities surrounding the World Cup festivities.

Protection tips for the upcoming FIFA World Cup themed cybercrime campaigns – ZDNET
“…With just four days until the FIFA World Cup begins, cybercriminals have already started showing their interest in taking advantage of the event, by launching targeted malicious PDFs/malware serving campaigns, blackhat SEO and fraudulent propositions, followed by lottery winning notifications/letters of claim themed scams. Considering that, these threats and exploitation tactics are prone to intensify throughout the entire event, let’s review some of the most commonly used attack vectors, and discuss the risk mitigation strategies for each and every one of them…”

Spam Volume Prior To World Cup. Image Source: ZDNET

Yet this underscores a major problem in Africa’s I.T Infrastructure, which most of it is insecure not because of a lack of sophistication to handle such cyber threats but a lack of priority.

Most Telecom companies for example do have state of the art technologies that could be channeled to address cybercrime yet none of these resources are utilized in a proactive way.

South Africa as a nation is exceptional in this approach as they have had a considerable investment in research when it comes to Information Privacy and Security.

However, with the exponential growth of the Telecom Sector, and amazing increase in the numbers of youngsters who are signing up for Online Social Networks such as Facebook, Twitter, etc, Privacy and Security can no longer be ignored.

Yet even documented incidences of Africa’s PCs being used as Transits for worms, Trojan horses, and all other cybercriminals need to comprehensively addressed, not forgetting the stereotypical “Nigerian Email” scam.

Yet in a clandestine fashion, African Governments have been known to employ primitive data mining techniques to spy on their citizens to check on all who are criticizing the ‘Village Chief’…

However, Information Privacy and Security should aim at empowering the locals rather than empowering the ‘powers that be’, this can be used to hold the ‘Village Chief’ accountable.

South Africa’ IT Performance Shows IT Growth in Africa

South Africa Information Technology Report Q2 2010 (Business Monitor International)
Companies and Markets | 07 Apr 2010

Market Overview ; South African IT spending is expected to increase from US$9.5bn in 2010 to around US$14.4bn in 2014, faster than real GDP growth. Despite an expected slowdown in investment associated with the 2010 FIFA World Cup, there should be opportunities for vendors across several sectors of a steadily growing South African IT market during our five-year forecast period. The 2010-2014 South African IT market compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is projected to be in the region of 11%, as a number of IT infrastructure projects generate spending at federal and provincial levels. Much spending in key IT verticals such as telecoms, banking and mining will be driven by factors internal to those sectors. The IT market fundamentals of sub-10% PC penetration, rising incomes and falling prices also underpin our growth forecast.

A successful hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup could be expected to attract more foreign investment. The IT market will also be driven by a continued improvement in South Africa’s ICT infrastructure and bandwidth availability. 2009 saw steep falls in the cost of ADSL services, which declined by as much as 80% in some areas, bringing broadband internet within reach of a wider proportion of South Africans.

Industry Developments The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has announced that it will spend more than SAR500mn on IT projects in the current financial year. The objectives include improving service delivery and immigration services and fighting corruption. IT projects will receive ZAR514mn in 2009, with this allocation growing to ZAR652mn in 2010/11.

The 2010 World Cup has had an impact, not only in terms of investments in IT systems directly linked to the event, but those driven by associated investments in areas such as infrastructure. Meanwhile, in the run-up to 2010, the licensing of a second national telecoms operator will provide opportunities for operators. In Gauteng, new technology is being used to improve policing and education, put more services such as driver’s licence booking online and automate healthcare records. Following her appointment in 2009 to the Open Source Software Standing Committee, Nthabiseng Mosupye, the director of information services at the Department of Public Works, called for a renewed drive to implement the government mandate of 2005, which saw all government departments making use of free open source software.

Competitive Landscape Government figures have estimated that Microsoft accounts for around one-third of national spending on software licences. In 2010, the software market leader hopes that sales of its Windows 7 operating system, launched in October 2009, will boost its sales in South Africa. Microsoft announced last year that four Microsoft Innovation Centres will be built in Africa in the next two years, two of them in South Africa.

Most of the major multinational IT services players have African regional headquarters in South Africa. In September 2009, IBM opened an Africa Innovation Centre in Cape Town, which the company hoped would act as a driver to grow its customer and business partner network in South Africa. The US company has expanded its local partner community by 200% since early 2008. Despite the tough economic conditions, PC vendors have strengthened their presence in the market with new distribution agreements and partnerships. In 2009 Korean company Samsung appointed local information and communication technology (ICT) distributor Rectron as distributor for its entire line of IT products. HP appointed local company LetMeRepair as a new authorised Home Product Service Partner for in and out of warranty repairs of its PC range.

Computer Sales
South Africa’s computer hardware market is forecast to grow to at a CAGR of 11% over the next few years from an estimated US$4.1bn in 2010 to US$6.3bn in 2014. In 2009, sales were hit by sluggish retail demand, with the wholesale and retail trade sector contracting. The main growth drivers during our five-year forecast period include rising computer penetration, falling prices and vendor and retailer promotions, and the popularity of notebook computers and ultra-light products. In the past few years, falling prices have helped boost PC unit shipments, along with aggressive retail promotions. In 2009, the popularity of low-cost netbooks gave further momentum to this trend. Netbooks are now available from online stores such as kalahari.net and ngrcomputers.co.za for as little as SAR3300, breaking new territory for affordability.

Software
The software market is forecast at around US$1.8mn in 2010 and, despite current economic headwinds, is projected to have a CAGR of around 11% over the 2010-2014 period. South Africa’s software market is developing, despite the problem of software piracy, which still accounts for around 36% of software. The growing regional ambitions of South African companies will be a factor driving corporate spending on software, but vendors will have to meet increasing demand for vertical-specific applications. The economic slowdown represents a challenge to software vendors, as enterprises are tempted to focus more on the bottom line. This situation is likely to lead to further consideration of open source solutions in some sectors. Meanwhile, the progress of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model in South Africa should receive a boost from projected improvements in South Africa’s broadband infrastructure.

IT Services
The IT services market is projected at around US$3.5bn in 2010 and is expected to grow to around US$5.3bn in 2014. The 2010 World Cup and other major infrastructure and transport projects provide a framework for faster spending growth during the forecast period.

Despite the current economic crisis, work will continue on most of the major infrastructure and IT projects associated with that event. Spending on IT services still depends heavily on government programmes, and in the current economic environment, the government will remain the largest spending IT services vertical, followed by financial services and telecoms.

E-Readiness
Internet penetration in South Africa is by far the highest on the continent, although broadband penetration remains low. In the small business sector, some progress is being made: according to a 2008 survey, 63% of smaller companies that use computers to connect to the internet now have a DSL internet connection, exactly the proportion using dial-up five years ago. Despite the opportunities, prospects for the IT market remain constrained by high communication costs and uneven infrastructure development. The government has launched a series of initiatives to tackle this issue, but there are doubts as to whether the government has the will to tackle the key question of termination rates and pricing implications.

The South African broadband market will become increasingly dynamic over the next five years. One development that is expected to have a major shake-up effect on the market is the inauguration of various undersea cables. Some of these are due to go live by 2010 and will help to reduce the cost of bandwidth. Other developments that are expected to provide the broadband market with a major stimulus include local loop unbundling – scheduled for completion in 2011 – and the deployment of new network infrastructures to rival Telkom’s national network.

Things Fall Apart For Uganda’s Fiber Optic Cable

Kato Mivule | April 21, 2010
It is always the poor who suffer while the elites can afford expensive satellite connections in Kampala… Corruption and mismanagement are some of the largest impediments to ICT development in Uganda…

Internet cable project stopped | New Vision |April 20, 2010
By Cyprian Musoke

THE National Information Technology Authority has stopped the laying of the Internet cable over reports of poor quality and inflated costs.

The three-phase project, which was meant to be ready by now, has been mired in controversy since it started in 2006.

The cable is meant to be linked to the submarine cable that arrived at the East African coast recently and to provide faster and cheaper Internet access to Uganda.

However, experts say the project will not deliver on the objectives because of the poor quality of the cable. Experts also said Uganda was spending far more on the “inferior” cable than what Rwanda spent on a superior one.

In a letter to the Chinese firm, Huawei Technologies, which is implementing the $106m (about sh221b) national fibre-optic project, the ICT watchdog said the work should wait until a forensic audit is conducted.

The permanent secretary of the ICT ministry, Dr. Godfrey Kibuuka, said the audit was goung on, but refused to give details.

The head of the parliamentary committee on ICT, Igeme Nabeta, also said yesterday the MPs had ordered the Chinese company to stop to allow a review of their work to ensure value for money.

“Where we find that they made mistakes they have to fix them at their own cost,” he stressed.

He said they would like to see the first phase operational before they give the project a greenlight.

“We want to see those e-government services operational.” The first phase involved laying a cable covering Kampala city, Entebbe, Mukono and Bombo towns, to enable high-speed data transfer between government offices.

Under the project, 2,100km of backbone fibre-optic cable would be laid. The New Vision broke the story recently that the cable was largely defective and inadequate for the national backbone infrastructure.

Uganda, it emerged, was using the G652 type instead of the G655 which would enable fast transmission and to take care of future growth.

The project is funded by a concessional loan from the export/import bank of China. Uganda will pay back the loan over 20 years.

“The contractor had transferred the completed phase to the Government. In some parts, the cable was laid in swamp land, elsewhere there are no generators, and many trenches are too shallow,” the MPs said in a report.

Despite the order from Parliament and the ICT ministry to halt the second phase, Huawei refused to stop.
Huawei blamed the damage to the cable on the numerous dig-ups in the city by various companies installing underground infrastructure.

Huawei wants each party to appoint its own experts to establish the quality of their work and said it was ready to fix any errors which they are responsible for.

Google To Report Spying Governments

Kato Mivule | April 21, 2010

Google now lets you know if the Ugandan Government is spying on you…

Government requests directed to Google and YouTube
http://www.google.com/governmentrequests/

Like other technology and communications companies, we regularly receive requests from government agencies around the world to remove content from our services, or provide information about users of our services and products. The map shows the number of requests that we received between July 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009, with certain limitations.

We know these numbers are imperfect and may not provide a complete picture of these government requests. For example, a single request may ask for the removal of more than one URL or for the disclosure of information for multiple users.


Mismanagement and Corruption Hinder ICT in Uganda

Mismanagement and Corruption Hinder ICT in Uganda…

Uganda lays wrong ICT cable – Experts |New Vision | April 4, 2010

UGANDA is laying the wrong fibre optic cable for the national backbone infrastructure, local and international experts have said.

Uganda is using the G652 type whereas it should be using G655 for the kind of data Uganda will need to transmit.

But despite instructions from the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Parliament to halt the second phase until the technical issues have been resolved, the Chinese company, Huawei Technologies, has refused to stop.

Every day the works continue, the company is using up more of the $106m (sh212b) for what experts say will prove to be a ‘white elephant’.

The National Transmission Backbone Infrastructure and related e-Government Infrastructure is a project funded by a concessional loan from the export/import bank (EXIM) of China.

Uganda has to pay back the loan over a period of 20 years.
The Chinese government sourced and recommended Huawei Technologies to carry out the implementation.

There was no tender and according to inside sources, no proper needs assessment study prior to implementation.
One source said a project document from Malawi was simply copied and the word ‘Malawi’ changed into ‘Uganda’.

The project involves building a 2,100 km fibre optic cable network linking 20 major towns, making Internet accessible and affordable to the majority of Ugandans and enabling e-Government.
Ultimately, it is meant to be linked to the submarine cables that have recently arrived at the East African coast and provide faster and cheaper Internet access to Uganda.
The backbone infrastructure is very instrumental for Uganda’s development.
It will determine whether the country will catch the ICT train or miss it.

The UN has established that there is a direct link between the spread of Internet and economic growth. The International Telecommunication Union found that every 1% increase in Internet penetration results into a $593 increment to GDP per capita.
Yet, contrary to neighbouring Rwanda, the country might miss the train due to an inadequate network and outdated technology that experts predict will constantly break down.

Wrong cable type
Questions about the type of cable were raised as far back as June 2009. In a brief to the ICT minister, the Project Implementation Unit recommended a shift from G652 to G655.

It argued that the cable used has Four Wavelength Mixing, a “phenomenon that introduces signal distortion that is extremely difficult to overcome”.
It also said the cable has very high levels of chromatic dispersion, “a phenomenon that introduces errors during signal transmission”.

More concerns about the type of cable were raised in a document drafted in September by the parliamentary committee on ICT.
The committee found that the bandwidth per fibre was too small. Bandwidth is the amount of traffic the fibre can carry simultaneously.
The G655 has a capacity of transmitting 40 gegabites per second whereas the current one can only transmit 2.5Gb, upgradable to 10Gb.

Experts say this is insufficient for Uganda’s current needs. It cannot provide for future growth bearing in mind that other countries, like Rwanda, may tap on the same infrastructure.

“The G652 cable does not have enough provision for future upgrade path for higher data rates, multiple channels and longer distances,” said the ICT committee.
One expert explained that it will be like driving traffic from a 10-lane road converging onto a one-lane road; leading to huge traffic jams.

“Projects like e-health or e-education using video-links may become difficult if not impossible to run across the country because they require huge bandwidth,” the expert said.
Makerere University had planned to set up five up-country centres allowing students to attend classes at the main campus through a video-link. Such projects, the expert said, may be excluded with this type of cable as data and video traffic grows across the country.

Dispersion distance
The committee also established that the reachable dispersion distance for the current cable is less than half of the G655.
This is the distance from where the optical signal, or light, dissipates or phases out.

According to the ICT committee, the reachable distance of the G652 is 80km, whereas the signal for the G655 can reach over 210km.

When the signal phases out, it needs to be regenerated through ‘boosters’, which are expensive to build and maintain.
It will also greatly contribute to ‘down time’ of the infrastructure, meaning the system will shut down.

Cores
Another concern raised is the number of cores of fibre that has been installed.
The cable being laid is only a 24 core fibre whereas experts recommend 96 cores as a minimum to ensure that future growth in data and video usage is not interrupted.

The number of cores determines the number of separate channels. Security sensitive information, for example, is preferably transmitted through a separate channel.
“The advantage of more cores is that they can be distributed over a much wider area,” an international ICT expert told The New Vision.
“In some instances, the cores not used by the Government could be leased to third party providers, making it a profitable business.”
Uganda will need this additional income to pay off the Chinese loan.

Price
Apart from the type of cable, experts have also raised questions about the price.
Rwanda spent $38m to cover a distance of 2,300km to connect 35 sites.
Uganda, on the other hand, will spend $61.6m to cover 2,100km.

That means that Uganda will spend about $30,000 per kilometre on the project, whereas Rwanda will spend $16,000 per kilometre.
This is despite the fact that Rwanda is using the G655 type, the one recommended by experts, which is slightly more expensive.

MPs and officials of the National Information Technology Authority (NITA) are particularly worried that the Chinese company is continuing the works without any supervision.

The Auditor General in his December report already criticised the lack of proper supervision during the first phase.

He noted that the Project Implementation Unit was only set up six months after the works had started.
“By this time, substantial amount of work on the contract had been undertaken,” the report says.

“Capacity was still lacking in terms of numbers and expertise, with the unit manned by only six technical staff, out of which only four were field-based.”
NITA and the ICT committee have demanded the immediate suspension of the works pending an entire review of the project based on a proper needs assessment study.

“A full technical audit is urgently required to save whatever is left of the $106m, and immediate steps need to be taken to rectify the situation,” said a source.

“Otherwise potentially fatal technical problems are facing both the National Backbone Infrastructure and e-Government.”

Missing the ICT train, NITA says, will be catastrophic for the future of Uganda.
“Wasting $106m is bad enough. But the loss of the money is nothing compared to the long-term consequences of missing the ICT revolution.”