"Cyber-attacks are on the rise globally, with seriously negative implications for countries’ strategic, national, economic and social well-being."

"One reason for South Africa’s poor showing may lie in the fact that a 2020 Accenture report found the country’s internet users were inexperienced and less technically alert."

There is actually a South African National Cybersecurity Policy Framework from 2013, as well as an established government National CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team ). But the political will from government to make it work seems missing and no such partnerships have really developed.

A key problem though is with governance itself. SA has excellent policies on open source software as well as minimum interoperability standards, but few officials actually even know about them, let alone apply them daily. The audits, you'd think, would be looking at compliance, but no, the Auditor-General's scope mandate is given by National Treasury, and that scope is mainly around financial controls.

So it may be that National Treasury does not appreciate the real costs behind cybersecurity, open source software, or having interoperable standards. For all three, costs are only one aspect of what they address, and it could be said that both cybersecurity as well as open source could also help create more local jobs. Certainly interoperable standards help reduce costs as well as vendor lock-in.

Why governance? Because it triggers a broader audit scope, which starts raising awareness of gaps, and then manages the closure of those gaps through training, compliance, etc. For any large government (or other institution) you cannot just rely on a few ad-hoc awareness e-mails and posters on walls... it needs proper institutional actions to be put in place with monitoring.

See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/security/460061-what-south-africa-must-do-to-fight-cybercrime.html

#technology #southafrica #cybercrime #governance #NationalTreasury

Maybe you love podcasts. Maybe you have listened to every single episode of every single show spotlighted on the Apple Podcasts (or other podcast site) homepage. And maybe you have thus found yourself in a listening rut. There are so many interview shows, scripted non-fiction shows, comedy chat shows, and fiction dramas, sometimes it seems like podcasts are pulling from a similar playbook. Is that all there is to a podcast?

Not these podcasts. Here are 11 shows that break every rule in the book, whether by inviting listener participation, completely ad-libbing musicals, playing with sound in unusual ways, or interviewing inanimate objects like chainsaws and grains of sand. If you think you’ve heard it all, try one of these experimental, innovative, hilarious, heartfelt shows that will stand out in your podcast queue and give you a new zest for the medium. Warning: You have no idea what you’re getting into.

Just a reminder that most podcasts are available free across many different podcast servers/services. So if you also have a favourite podcast app, maybe try some of these podcasts.

See https://lifehacker.com/11-innovative-podcasts-to-listen-to-if-youre-bored-with-1849512142

#technology #podcasts #entertainment #audio

Huawei has launched its latest flagship smartphone range — the Mate 50 series — with support for satellite texting in areas without cellular connectivity.

The feature will allow users to communicate with China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System for sending short messages and navigating.

Satellite calling and texting were expected to be among the standout features of last year’s iPhone 13.

Huawei’s smartphones are still reputed for their impressive camera capabilities. Three of its models currently occupy spots in DXOMark’s top 10 camera smartphone rankings.

See https://mybroadband.co.za/news/smartphones/459563-huawei-mate-50-launched-with-satellite-texting-and-an-iphone-like-notch.html

#technology #smartphones #Huawei #satellitetext #satellitecomms

For developers, there is no debate. The future of the database is open source. A glance at the 2022 Stack Overflow survey of around 70,000 code-wranglers shows nearly all pros use one of the two leading open source RDBMSes, PostgreSQL (46.5 percent) or MySQL (45.7 percent), although they use other systems as well.

A longish but interesting article looking at how open "open source" is with different databases, and why. Databases are critical to businesses, no matter whether they run standalone or in a cloud environment. One question that comes up is, if I were to migrate away from someone's service or a specific database, do I have to rewrite my application system? This determines how hard a vendor lock in may be.

Also, if I use a free and open source database and want to scale it up massively later on, or charge to provide a service using it, what are the implications?

It's clear that developers, or those choosing a service provider, should consider these questions as it is not always just about the language that an application system is written in, that counts. An application, or service, is often nothing without its database.

See https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/05/open_source_databases/

#technology #opensource #databases #scaling #licensing

Your home router is usually your main gateway and firewall between your house full of connected devices, and the Wild West of the Internet. If you have a router that is no longer receiving updates every month or so, then you're likely not getting the security patches that you need to protect your home network.

Or you may have an older, or cheaper, router that lacks many more advanced features.

OpenWRT is regularly updated and patched and is crammed with all sorts of management and security features. It can turn many "dumb" routers into more advanced devices (yes, it's mostly all in the software). It is free to install and use, but will require you to reflash your router and start again with default settings.

See https://www.phoronix.com/news/OpenWrt-22.03-Released

#technology #OpenWRT #routers #security #opensource

"Email is now an oligopoly, a service gatekept by a few big companies which does not follow the principles of net neutrality."

"One strike and you're out. For the rest of your life."

It's true that today's anti-spam measures are ruthless and block ranges of IP addresses permanently without easy recourse including residential IP addresses, etc. So your self-hosted mail server often finds it's e-mail is undeliverable, especially to anyone else using a Big Tech mail service.

The suggestions are at the end of the article and centre around softening the approach to anti-spam measures, with less permanence.

Will Big Tech listen and make it easier for individuals and self-hosters? Probably not, as the pendulum has swung their way with the ability to block automatically.

E-mail is not really complicated to host and has been a basic Internet service since the beginning of the Internet. In theory, many could be (technically) hosting their e-mail from home with their own domain names, and that way moving their e-mail wherever they go.

You have the right and freedom to host your own e-mail, but it may be a difficult road to travel.

See https://cfenollosa.com/blog/after-self-hosting-my-email-for-twenty-three-years-i-have-thrown-in-the-towel-the-oligopoly-has-won.html

#technology #email #selfhosting #BigTech

In this guide, we will see a brief introduction to Arch2appimage, and how to install Arch2appimage in Linux and how to convert Arch Linux packages to AppImage format with Arch2appimage application.

Arch2appimage is a Python script to convert any Arch Linux package (official/AUR) to an AppImage format. Arch2appimage downloads the AUR source code, compiles it and finally converts the package to an AppImage executable file.

Why would I convert an Arch Linux package into AppImage format? You might wonder. AUR (Arch User Repository) is an unofficial, community-driven, and largest software repository that hosts user-created Arch Linux packages. AUR has every kind of packages in it. You may find an interesting package that is only available in AUR and want to use it on a different Linux platform, say Fedora. This is where Arch2Appimage utility comes in helpful.

See https://ostechnix.com/convert-arch-linux-packages-to-appimage/

#technology #Linux #opensource #Appimage #archlinux

The modern world! Such complications did not exist a few decades back. Some study aids are generally considered acceptable. When writing papers, it is perfectly fine to use grammar- and syntax-checking products standard on Microsoft Word (or LibreOffice) and other document creating programs. Other A.I. programs like Grammarly help write better sentences and fix errors. Google Docs finishes sentences in drafts and emails.

Certainly, one can argue that this topic has already been covered in university academic integrity codes. Using A.I. might open students to serious charges. For instance, American University indicates, “All papers and materials submitted for a course must be the student’s original work unless the sources are cited” while the University of Maryland similarly notes that it is prohibited to use dishonesty to “gain an unfair advantage, and/or using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic course or exercise.”

A.I. of course is not 'dishonesty' per se (unless specifically banned). Is it maybe like a "performance enhancing drug"? That probably also means you need to be completely sober and drug-free when submitting assignments and exam papers.

Numerous educators assert that using A.I. is violating academic integrity. I suppose then the easy answer really is to throw this out to the ethics students for debate and analysis, without any A.I. involvement. Because certainly definitions such as "original" and "advantage" are themselves open to all sorts of modern interpretation...

See https://slate.com/technology/2022/09/ai-students-writing-cheating-sudowrite.html

#technology #AI #academia #assignments #ethics

As part of its efforts to make consumer electronics more sustainable, the EU has proposed new regulations that will require OEMs to offer at least five years of security updates and three years of OS updates to their devices. In addition, EU regulators have also suggested minimum spare part requirements for smartphones and tablets sold in the region for a minimum of five years.

To a large extent Apple does NOT have the software update issue and will easily comply with this requirement, but Android really does need this minimum spec for software updates. Both require requirements for parts availability and especially battery replacement.

This will go a long way to at least halving the current e-waste from smartphones and tablets. The prices being charged for many smartphones of over $1,000 is just crazy if you think they only get supported for 2 or 3 years. It will force manufacturers to also think differently about design, but also how they market new features. I have realised that buying very cheap no-name Android phones is really not in my best interest as it is better to pay a bit more and get better longevity and support out of a device, so much so, that after many years on Android I ditched it for an iPhone.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/eu-regulation-software-update-spare-part-availability

#technology #rightorepair #EU #softwareupdates #smartphones