Windows Insider? Participate in the Windows Insiders Insiders2Campus contest and win a trip to participate in Microsoft 2019 Hackathon.
Like last year Microsoft is inviting 10 Windows Insiders to its Redmond campus. This year will be different. Apart from the campus tour, winners will get to participate in the Microsoft 2019 Hackathon.
The invitation reads;
For the first time ever, we’re inviting a select group of fans to join us at Microsoft headquarters for our global Hackathon, where full-time employees and interns gather to celebrate products and hear from Microsoft leaders—including CEO Satya Nadella
Tell us about your passion for solving challenges with your personal superpowers, whether you harness the power of design, project management, coding, or another area of expertise. You could win a trip to campus this July 22-25 to participate in Hackathon 2019, enjoy exclusive tours, and meet Microsoft leaders. You’ll hack alongside Microsoft employees for an amazing four days of collaboration, creativity, and problem solving.
Here’s How to participate in the contest
To qualify for the contest and be eligible;
You must be a registered Windows Insiders. (register here)
Submit a link to a video in which you describe why you should be selected to participate in the Microsoft Insiders2Campus 2019 Hackathon. (Only one entry)
Microsoft will give the Egypt startup technical and business support in new partnership.
Digital recruitment solutions company HireHunt announces partnership with Microsoft. The collaboration through Microsoft 4Afrika will see HireHunt recieve leads from Microsoft’s network. Microsoft will also provide them with technical and go-to market resources.
Sherif Aziz, Partners and Start-ups Lead, Microsoft 4Afrika said this about the collaboration.
“As we strive with our customers towards digital transformation, HireHunt makes that possible on a recruitment level. A clear example of how technology can enable companies to hunt for the best most suitable talents. Microsoft 4Afrika is very excited to partner with HireHunt where we will support them on both technical and business level.”
About the Startup
HireHunt is a digital recruitment solution startup based in Egypt bringing the right employers and talents together. Providing a talent platform where applicants showcase their skills, expertise and personalities through interactive job applications.
For employers the platform handles the time consuming tasks faster, so they can focus on filling positions with higher accuracy. With their mantra “Do less, hire faster”.
How HireHunt works.
“On HireHunt, applicants can show who they are and what they can do by answering interesting questions about themselves and their work experience to attract the attention of employers. Questions can be answered by text or recording voice. You can solve games to earn badges and get more visibility from positive interactions with employers. Every interaction gives them feedback about their capabilities. Helps them explore new career paths and discover their next opportunity at the same time. Employers now have access to a ‘swiss army knife of recruitment technology’ to help them hire the right people faster. Using Artificial Intelligence and interactive screening, high-growth companies can cut up to 80% of their hiring time by automating the dull parts of sourcing, screening and tracking so they can focus on what’s important. 82% of employers identify their next hire within 2 weeks using our sourcing campaigns powered by machine learning.”
Microsoft and United Arab Emirates Education Ministry reach an agreement to upskill its workforce in AI and Data Science.
Microsoft and the United Arab Emirates Education Ministry have reached an agreement. The agreement will see Microsoft support the education ministry in its vision to upskill its workforce. The UAE’s ministry has a strategic objective to develop the skills of its employees in the latest technological trends. Microsoft will achieve this through the Microsoft Learning Partners Program.
Anthony Salcito, Microsoft VP, Worldwide Education and His Excellency Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, UAE Minister of Education signed the agreement at Bett MEA 2019. (A gathering of education leaders from across the Middle East and Africa)
Microsoft says “under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will support the ministry in its vision for upskilling its workforce in line with the latest technological trends through its Microsoft Learning Partners Program. The Ministry engineers will undergo various training tracks selected from the areas of data science, artificial intelligence, big data and others.”
Speaking about the partnership His Excellency Hussain Ibrahim Al Hammadi said;
“As part of its strategic objectives, the Ministry is working continuously to develop the skills of its employees in line with the latest global trends related to IT, AI and Cybersecurity. The focal areas related to the future and the associated skills must be mastered.”
“This partnership with the Ministry of Education will bolster the talents of its employees. Empowering them to make a difference and deliver real value across the UAE education sector for years to come.” said Microsoft’s Anthony Salcito.
Microsoft at Bett MEA 2019
As worldwide partners of BETT MEA 2019, Microsoft presented the Future of Learning keynote during the Leadership Summit session. Presenting various Microsoft solutions with customer testimonials to leaders at the event. Microsoft introduced the mordern class room interaction using Office 365, Azure cloud serice for research, Microsoft Hacking STEM and Minecraft for education.
Microsoft also delivered content and industry insights at the workshop sessions. Sharing on Leveraging future-ready skills and eploayability solutions for student sucess and Future of work.
Microsoft also shared the expo center with its innovative partners. Allowing educators and decision makes at the event to experience future ready education tools and solutions. Some Microsoft education partners at the event included ITWorkx Educztion, Classsera Inc., Nexquare, Computer 4 Kids, and Jawraa.
Microsoft has released its 2018 Security Intelligence Report (SIR), the 24th in its volume. Analysis of over 6.5 trillion daily threat signals highlight a 73 percent global decline in malware encounters. It however noticed a rise in crypto mining malware.
From the report, Ethiopia and Cameroon ranked among the top five countries mostly impacted by ransomware. With 0.72 and 0.36 percent ransomeware encounter rates respectively. Whilst Namibia, 0.5%, South Africa, 0.8% and United Arab Emirates, 0.5% are countries with lowest ransomware encounter rates in MEA.
MEA Monthly Average Ransomware Encounter Rates
Microsoft says “low ransomware encounter rate countries are known to communicate with their citizens about basic security. Countries with lowest ransomware encounter rates also have mature cybersecurity infrastructures and well-established programmes for protecting critical infrastructure.”
“The five locations with the highest average monthly ransomware encounter rates in 2018 were Ethiopia (0.77 percent average monthly ransomware encounter rate), Mongolia (0 46), Cameroon (0 41), Myanmar (0 33), and Venezuela (0 31), each of which had an average monthly ransomware encounter rate of 0 31 percent or higher during the period.
The locations with the lowest ransomware encounter rates in 2018 were Ireland (0.01), Japan (0.01), the United States (0.02), United Kingdom (0.02), and Sweden (0.02 percent), each of which had an average monthly ransomware encounter rate of 0.02 percent or lower during the same period.”
The 24th edition of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report showed cryptomining malware as another stealthy threat on the rise.
“The decline in ransomware encounters was due in part to improved detection and education that made it more difficult for attackers to profit from it As a result, attackers began to shift their efforts away from ransomware to approaches such as cryptocurrency mining, which uses victims’ computing resources to make digital money for the attackers.
Mining for cryptocurrency is a lucrative past time for hackers, but it consumes massive computing resources. To overcome this challenge, hackers infect unsuspecting users’ computers with malware so that they can use the collective processing power of all their victims’ machines to mine for coins.
And unlike ransomware, cryptocurrency mining does not require user input – it’s able to work in the background while the user is performing other tasks or is away from their computer. In other words, they won’t necessarily notice its presence at all unless their system’s performance is significantly compromised.”
The Microsoft SIR states that in the “Middle East and Africa, cryptocurrency mining is particularly prevalent. Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia account for three of the top five nations most impacted by cryptocurrency mining. With encounter rates well above the global average at 5.58, 1.83 and 1.13 % respectively.”
How can you keep yourself, your family and organization safe from these attacks? Read on how to stay security conscious online.
Andela Kenya hosts workshop powered by Microsoft. Introducing the Microsoft Graph Service APIs and Smart Clients to its developer learning community in Nairobi.
This month’s Andela workshop episode was in collaboration with Microsoft. The Andela Kenya workshop powered by Microsoft introduced developers to Microsoft’s Graph Service APIs and Smart Clients. Leading the workshop sessions were Microsoft office software engineers; Harvey Rook, Michael Mainer, Japheth Obala and Charles Wahome Gitau.
Amongst the topics of discussions were Introduction to Microsoft Graph. What role the Graph developer experience team plays and how they are improving the developer experience by providing client libraries and tools. How to get started with Graph, demonstration of the Graph Explorer and how to get a free demo tenant to get started.
Graph is the API that connects data and insights across Microsoft technologies. Hundreds of important business object types like emails, files, and events are surfaced with Graph. Graph’s API lets a developer build apps for organizations and consumers that interact with the data of a lot of users. Allowing them to gain valuable insights and intelligence about the data.
It has been a wonderful experience learning more about the Microsoft Graph service API. Feeling a little more inspired to contribute to open source ?#AndelaWorkshop#MicrosoftAtAndela@OfficeDev
