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IT teams at risk of being caught unawares by new OT threat, according to Microsoft’s latest threat intelligence

IT teams at risk of being caught unawares by new OT threat, according to Microsoft’s latest threat intelligence

by | Jan 9, 2024 | General, Microsoft Africa

New research from Microsoft reveals that attackers are increasingly making use of
operational technology to gain new entryways into company networks.

  • Microsoft’s 43 trillion daily security signals and 8,500 security experts provide insight into the latest security trends in the Middle East and Africa
  • Over 1.1 billion IoT connections are expected in the Middle East and North Africa by 2023

Microsoft’s latest Cyber Signals report highlights how
cybercriminals are using Operational Technology (OT) as gateways into an organization’s
network. This comes at a time when IoT connections in the region are growing with the
GSMA predicting that 1.1 billion IoT connections are expected by 2025 in MENA. It’s this
growth in OT and IoT that has given cybercriminals more opportunities to breach an
organization’s network.


Microsoft’s Cyber Signals report is a regular cyberthreat intelligence brief spotlighting
security trends and insights gathered from Microsoft’s 65 trillion daily security signals and
8,500 security experts. The latest edition has found that converging IT, Internet of Things
(IoT) and OT systems pose a wider risk to critical infrastructure.


For CIOs in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), the impact of a possible security breach is top
of mind in an increasingly complex threat environment. This can be seen in the 11.2 percent
rise in cybersecurity spending in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for 2022.
The growing rate of digital transformation within the African region is facilitating the
emergence of new attack vectors and opportunities for cybercriminals. The Kenyan
government has identified cybersecurity as a key enabler for digital economy. Kenya faces
increased cybersecurity challenges and risks that threaten national security and the
country’s digital transformation agenda. Cybersecurity statistics indicate that the number of
cyber threats detected in Kenya has significantly increased in the last three years. The
Communications Authority of Kenya reported 278,030,354 threats detected in the period
from July to September 2022, an increase of 99.478% from threats detected between April
to June of the same year.


The increase in digital transformation across the region has enabled organizations to
manage their buildings, emergency systems and access control with smart devices
connected to a network. In addition, we have seen an increase in IoT devices in the
workplace to better enable hybrid work such as smart conference rooms with microphones
and cameras.


As the threat landscape continues to expand and become more complex, organizations
need to rethink their cyber risk approach to stay one step ahead of would-be attackers.
Cyber Signals found that there are currently over 1 million connected devices publicly visible
on the Internet running Boa, an outdated and unsupported software still widely used in IoT
devices and software development kits.


“Organizations are more connected than ever before. From the humble Wi-Fi router to the
everyday office printer, IT teams need to view their IoT devices differently and secure them

as they would any company laptop to prevent security breaches,” says Phyllis Migwi,
Country Manager for Microsoft Kenya. “Gaining complete visibility of an organization’s OT
systems and protecting its IoT solutions will go a long way in preventing cyberattacks.”
To learn more about IT, OT, and IoT threats, read the third edition of Cyber Signals. To learn
more about Microsoft Security solutions and keep up with expert coverage on security
matters, visit the Microsoft Security website and Microsoft Security blog.

Microsoft and M-PESA Africa partner to develop digital skills for MSMEs

Microsoft and M-PESA Africa partner to develop digital skills for MSMEs

by | Jan 9, 2024 | Microsoft Africa

  • Microsoft, through its Africa Transformation Office and Microsoft Philanthropies program, is
    partnering with M-PESA to support MSME Digital Skills
  • Through the Microsoft Community and Training Platform, M-PESA Africa will digitise skilling
    for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
  •  The MSME program will be enabled in several M-PESA Africa markets, including Kenya,
    Lesotho, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Tanzania

Microsoft is partnering with M-PESA Africa to support its
Capability Development Academy. Microsoft will provide access to the Microsoft Community Platform
and SME Skilling Programs to drive capacity building and digitisation for Micro, Small and Medium
SMEs (MSMEs) across several African markets.


Through the Microsoft Community and Training platform, M-PESA Africa will digitise skilling and
leverage the community platform to equip MSMEs with the necessary skills to develop stronger
business models, manage their finances and offer exceptional customer service.


M-PESA is Africa’s leading fintech and payments service, connecting over 60 million customers and
more than 900,000 businesses through M-PESA business solutions across eight countries,
processing over 91 million transactions and over $1 billion in daily value.


With the youngest working population in the world, Africa could supply the next generation of the
workforce. However, the widening skills gap must be addressed to take advantage of this opportunity.
Small and Medium Enterprises are a crucial part of contributing to Africa’s inclusive socio-economic
growth. These businesses anchor countries’ economies and can contribute to inclusive socio-
economic growth.


In emerging economies, SMEs account for 40% of GDP, and generate at least 90% of new jobs.
However, research indicates that up to 80% of African SMEs fail within the first five years, despite
having the highest entrepreneurship rate in the world. Access to business enablement tools, access
to finance, and digital skills, are some of the key potential stumbling blocks for SMEs.
Microsoft is committed to closing the digital skills gap.


Through its Africa Transformation Office, Microsoft believes in giving MSMEs tools to grow their
market access to add to the overall growth of economies greatly. The company works to digitally
enable 10 million African SMEs through relevant business apps and ready-to-use skilling content.
Microsoft skilling programs available through M-PESA business solutions will empower MSMEs to
develop the knowledge they need to manage their finances more effectively, including building skills
such as basic accounting, financial planning and cash flow management. These skills improve their
chances of accessing formal financial services such as bank accounts, financial loans and business
insurance. In turn, adopting digital tools helps provide access to digital payment systems, which can
help MSMEs save time and reduce the costs associated with manual transactions. Microsoft’s skilling
programs will also help MSMEs develop the entrepreneurial skills they need to start and grow a
successful business.


The program aims to improve livelihoods for MSME entrepreneurs and their communities and,
hopefully, open opportunities for these small businesses to compete in the global market. At the heart
of the MSME upskilling program is the goal of reducing inequalities and empowering vulnerable
groups, in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 10. The program will be
enabled in several M-PESA Africa markets, including Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, and Tanzania.


“In line with our purpose of transforming lives, we continue to pursue innovations and partnerships
that connect customers and businesses across the continent to more opportunities while uplifting their
livelihoods. We are excited to partner with Microsoft to upskill entrepreneurs and provide them with

C2

10 AI terms everyone should know

10 AI terms everyone should know

by | Jan 9, 2024 | Apple, Main-Story-2

By Susanna Ray, Microsoft Source writer

The term “AI” has been used in computer science since the 1950s, but most people outside the industry
didn’t start talking about it until the end of 2022. That’s because recent advances in machine learning
led to big breakthroughs that are beginning to have a profound impact on nearly every aspect of our
lives. We’re here to help break down some of the buzzwords so you can better understand AI terms and
be part of the global conversation.

  1. Artificial intelligence
    Artificial intelligence is basically a super-smart computer system that can imitate humans in some ways,
    like comprehending what people say, making decisions, translating between languages, analyzing if
    something is negative or positive, and even learning from experience. It’s artificial in that its intellect
    was created by humans using technology. Sometimes people say AI systems have digital brains, but
    they’re not physical machines or robots — they’re programs that run on computers. They work by
    putting a vast collection of data through algorithms, which are sets of instructions, to create models that
    can automate tasks that typically require human intelligence and time. Sometimes people specifically
    engage with an AI system — like asking Bing Chat for help with something — but more often the AI is
    happening in the background all around us, suggesting words as we type, recommending songs in
    playlists and providing more relevant information based on our preferences.
  2. Machine learning
    If artificial intelligence is the goal, machine learning is how we get there. It’s a field of computer science,
    under the umbrella of AI, where people teach a computer system how to do something by training it to
    identify patterns and make predictions based on them. Data is run through algorithms over and over,
    with different input and feedback each time to help the system learn and improve during the training
    process — like practicing piano scales 10 million times in order to sight-read music going forward. It’s
    especially helpful with problems that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to solve using
    traditional programming techniques, such as recognizing images and translating languages. It takes a
    huge amount of data, and that’s something we’ve only been able to harness in recent years as more
    information has been digitized and as computer hardware has become faster, smaller, more powerful
    and better able to process all that information. That’s why large language models that use machine
    learning — such as Bing Chat and ChatGPT — have suddenly arrived on the scene.
  3. Large language models
    Large language models, or LLMs, use machine learning techniques to help them process language so
    they can mimic the way humans communicate. They’re based on neural networks, or NNs, which are
    computing systems inspired by the human brain — sort of like a bunch of nodes and connections that
    simulate neurons and synapses. They are trained on a massive amount of text to learn patterns and
    relationships in language that help them use human words. Their problem-solving capabilities can be
    used to translate languages, answer questions in the form of a chatbot, summarize text and even write
    stories, poems and computer code. They don’t have thoughts or feelings, but sometimes they sound like
    they do, because they’ve learned patterns that help them respond the way a human might. They’re

often fine-tuned by developers using a process called reinforcement learning from human feedback
(RLHF) to help them sound more conversational.

  1. Generative AI
    Generative AI leverages the power of large language models to make new things, not just regurgitate or
    provide information about existing things. It learns patterns and structures and then generates
    something that’s similar but new. It can make things like pictures, music, text, videos and code. It can be
    used to create art, write stories, design products and even help doctors with administrative tasks. But it
    can also be used by bad actors to create fake news or pictures that look like photographs but aren’t real,
    so tech companies are working on ways to clearly identify AI-generated content.
  2. Hallucinations
    Generative AI systems can create stories, poems and songs, but sometimes we want results to be based
    in truth. Since these systems can’t tell the difference between what’s real and fake, they can give
    inaccurate responses that developers refer to as hallucinations or confabulations — much like if
    someone saw what looked like the outlines of a face on the moon and began saying there was an actual
    man in the moon. Developers try to resolve these issues through “grounding,” which is when they
    provide an AI system with additional information from a trusted source to improve accuracy about a
    specific topic. Sometimes a system’s predictions are wrong, too, if a model doesn’t have current l
    doesn’t have current information after it’s trained.
  3. Responsible AI
    Responsible AI guides people as they try to design systems that are safe and fair — at every level,
    including the machine learning model, the software, the user interface and the rules and restrictions put
    in place to access an application. It’s a crucial element because these systems are often tasked with
    helping make important decisions about people, such as in education and healthcare, but since they’re
    created by humans and trained on data from an imperfect world, they can reflect any inherent biases. A
    big part of responsible AI involves understanding the data that was used to train the systems and finding
    ways to mitigate any shortcomings to help better reflect society at large, not just certain groups of
    people.
  4. Multimodal models
    A multimodal model can work with different types, or modes, of data simultaneously. It can look at
    pictures, listen to sounds and read words. It’s the ultimate multitasker! It can combine all of this
    information to do things like answer questions about images.
  5. Prompts
    A prompt is an instruction entered into a system in language, images or code that tells the AI what task
    to perform. Engineers — and really all of us who interact with AI systems — must carefully design
    prompts to get the desired outcome from the large language models. It’s like placing your order at a deli
    counter: You don’t just ask for a sandwich, but you specify which bread you want and the type and
    amounts of condiments, vegetables, cheese and meat to get a lunch that you’ll find delicious and
    nutritious.
  6. Copilots
    A copilot is like a personal assistant that works alongside you in all sorts of digital applications, helping
    with things like writing, coding, summarizing and searching. It can also help you make decisions and
    understand lots of data. The recent development of large language models made copilots possible,
    allowing them to comprehend natural human language and provide answers, create content or take
    action as you work within different computer programs. Copilots are built with Responsible AI guardrails
    to make sure they’re safe and secure and are used in a good way. Just like a copilot in an airplane, it’s
    not in charge — you are — but it’s a tool that can help you be more productive and efficient.
  7. Plugins
    Plugins are like relief pitchers in baseball — they step in to fill specific needs that might pop up as the
    game develops, such as putting in a left-handed pitcher when a left-handed hitter steps up to the plate
    for a crucial at-bat. Plugins enable AI applications to do more things without having to modify the
    underlying model. They are what allow copilots to interact with other software and services, for
    example. They can help AI systems access new information, do complicated math or talk to other
    programs. They make AI systems more powerful by connecting them to the rest of the digital world.
Microsoft announces 100 new services and updates to help accelerate AI transformation

Microsoft announces 100 new services and updates to help accelerate AI transformation

by | Jan 9, 2024 | Learn, Main-Story-1

Microsoft has introduced around 100 new services and updates as part of its
AI-forward strategy, including key developments within its productivity and security offerings. The
announcements were made at Microsoft Ignite 2023 – the company’s annual conference for
developers and IT professionals.

As we reach the end of 2023, nearly every industry in Africa is undergoing a collective transformation,
with estimates that AI could expand the economy as much as 50 percent of current GDP by 2030 if
the continent could capture just 10 percent of the global AI market.

Forward-thinking organisations and enterprising startups alike are discovering entirely new ways of
working and harnessing the power of AI to address some of society’s most daunting challenges—from
improving access to quality legal services in South Africa to extending the reach of healthcare
professionals in low-resourced communities in Nigeria.

Microsoft Ignite is a showcase of the advances being developed to help customers, partners and
developers achieve the total value of Microsoft’s technology and reshape the way work is done.

There are strong signals of AI’s potential to transform work across the continent. As it stands, more
than half of employees in Africa and the Middle East say they would change their minds about
seeking out a new job if their current employer invested in new technology like automation. Eight
months ago, Microsoft introduced Copilot for Microsoft 365 to reduce digital debt and increase
productivity so people can focus on the work that is uniquely human. Already, the company’s
research, from a combination of surveys and experiments, demonstrates significant productivity gains:

  • 70 percent of Copilot users said they were more productive, and 68 percent said it improved
    the quality of their work; 68 percent say it helped jumpstart the creative process.
  • Overall, users were 29 percent faster at specific tasks (searching, writing and summarising).

The company’s latest announcements are geared towards helping accelerate existing progress,
enabling faster and more profound transformation across sectors. Key updates include:

  • Rethinking cloud infrastructure
    Microsoft has led with groundbreaking advances like partnerships with OpenAI and the integration of
    ChatGPT capabilities into tools used to search, collaborate, work and learn. As we accelerate further
    into AI, Microsoft is rethinking cloud infrastructure to ensure optimisation across every layer of the
    hardware and software stack.

    At Ignite we are announcing new innovations across our datacentre fleet, including the latest
    AI optimised silicon from our industry partners and two new Microsoft-designed chips.

  • Microsoft Azure Maia, an AI Accelerator chip designed to run cloud-based training and
    inferencing for AI workloads such as OpenAI models, Bing, GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT.
  • Microsoft Azure Cobalt, a cloud-native chip based on Arm architecture optimised for
    performance, power efficiency and cost-effectiveness for general purpose workloads.
  • Additionally, we are announcing the general availability of Azure Boost, a system that makes
    storage and networking faster by moving those processes off the host servers onto purpose-
    built hardware and software. 

Complementing our custom silicon, we are expanding partnerships with our silicon providers to
provide infrastructure options for customers.

  • We’ll be adding AMD MI300X accelerated virtual machines (VMs) to Azure. The ND MI300
    VMs are designed to accelerate the processing of AI workloads for high range AI model
    training and generative inferencing, and will feature AMD’s latest GPU, the AMD Instinct
    MI300X.
  • The preview of the new NC H100 v5 Virtual Machine Series built for NVIDIA H100 Tensor
    Core GPUs, offering greater performance, reliability and efficiency for mid-range AI training
  • and generative AI inferencing. We’re also announcing plans for the ND H200 v5 Virtual
    Machine Series, an AI-optimised VM featuring the upcoming NVIDIA H200 Tensor Core GPU.

Extending the Microsoft Copilot experience
To go beyond individual productivity, we are extending Microsoft Copilot offerings across solutions to
transform productivity and business processes for every role and function.

Top Copilot-related announcements include:

  • Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365: The new Microsoft Copilot Dashboard shows
    customers how Copilot is impacting their organisation. To empower teamwork, new features
    for Copilot in Outlook help users prep for meetings, and during meetings, new whiteboarding
    and note-taking experiences for Copilot in Microsoft Teams keep everyone on the same page.
  • Microsoft Copilot Studio: This is a new end-to-end conversational AI platform that allows
    organisations to build their own copilots from scratch or adapt out-of-the-box copilots with
    their own data, logic, and actions relevant to their business needs.  
  • Bringing Copilot to everyone: Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise will now simply become
    Copilot. With these changes, when signed in with a Microsoft Entra ID, customers using
    Copilot in Bing, Edge and Windows will receive the benefit of commercial data protection.

Unlocking more value for developers with Azure AI

We continue to expand choice and flexibility in generative AI models to offer developers the most
comprehensive selection. With Model-as-a-Service, a new feature in the model catalog we
announced at Build, pro developers will be able to easily integrate latest AI models such as Llama 2
from Meta and upcoming premium models from Mistral and Jais from G42 as API endpoints to their
applications. They can also customise these models with their own data without needing to worry
about setting up and managing the GPU infrastructure, helping eliminate the complexity of
provisioning resources and managing hosting.

With the preview of Azure AI Studio, there is now a unified and trusted platform to help organisations
more easily explore, build, test and deploy AI apps – all in one place. With Azure AI Studio, you can
build your own copilots, train your own, or ground other foundational and open-source models with
data that you bring.

And Vector Search, a feature of Azure AI Search, is now generally available, so organisations can
generate highly accurate experiences for every user in their generative AI applications.

The new GPT-3.5 Turbo model with a 16K token prompt length will be generally available and GPT-4
Turbo will be in public preview in Azure OpenAI Service at the end of November 2023, GPT-4
Turbo will enable customers to extend prompt length and bring even more control and efficiency to
their generative AI applications.

GPT-4 Turbo with Vision is coming soon to preview and DALLE·3 is now available in public preview
in Azure Open AI Service, helping fuel the next generation of enterprise solutions along with GPT-4,
so organisations can pursue advanced functionalities with images. And when used with our Azure AI
Vision service, GPT-4 Turbo with Vision even understands video for generating text outputs, furthering
human creativity.

Introducing new experiences in Windows to empower employees, IT and developers
To further our mission of making Windows the home for developers and the best place for AI
development, we announced a host of new AI and productivity tools for developers, including
Windows AI Studio.

Announcing NVIDIA AI foundry service

Aimed at helping enterprises and startups supercharge the development, tuning and deployment of
their own custom AI models on Microsoft Azure, NVIDIA will announce their AI foundry service
running on Azure. The NVIDIA AI foundry service pulls together three elements – a collection of
NVIDIA AI Foundation models, NVIDIA NeMo framework and tools, and NVIDIA DGX Cloud AI
supercomputing and services – that give enterprises an end-to-end solution for creating custom

generative AI models. Businesses can then deploy their models with NVIDIA AI Enterprise software
on Azure to power generative AI applications, including intelligent search, summarisation and content
generation.

Strengthening defenses in the era of AI
Microsoft is combining the power of leading solutions in SIEM, XDR and generative AI for security into
the first unified security operations platform to help defenders by simplifying the complexity of their
environment. We are also adding new embedded experiences of Security Copilot across the Microsoft
Security portfolio.

The History of Apple iPhone

The History of Apple iPhone

by | Jun 29, 2023 | Apple

The first iPhone was officially announced on January 9, 2007 and was released in the United States on June 29, 2007.

It was the first smartphone designed and marketed by Apple Inc, and was referred to as the iPhone 2G, iPhone 1, or original iPhone

The model number of the first iPhone is A12031.

It had a 3.5-inch display with a resolution of 320×480 pixels, a 2-megapixel camera, and ran on the iPhone OS 1.0 operating system.

It was discontinued on July 15, 2008.

The cost of the first iPhone

The price of the first iPhone depended on the storage capacity and the contract with AT&T.

the original iPhone was priced at $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB model, along with a two-year contract with AT&T.

However, these prices were later reduced to $399 and $499, respectively, in September 2007.

If we adjust these prices for inflation, they would be equivalent to $720, $864, $576, and $720 in 2023, respectively.

How do you feel about these prices compared to the current iPhone models? 😊

How many iPhones have been sold so far?

According to various sources, the total number of iPhones sold worldwide since 2007 is over 2.2 billion.

Apple shipped 206.1 million iPhones in 2020 and 55.2 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2021.

iPhones have a 27.71% market share of the global smartphone market as of the first quarter of 2021.

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Featured image: Unsplash (Mohamed Nohassi): https://unsplash.com/photos/-0xMiYQmk8g

Check out other Microsoft stories making the news across Africa and the Middle East region.