Tanzania Government Finalizing Cyber Crime Act

The government of Tanzania is in the process of finalizing a Cyber Crime Act that which will help curb theft through banking institutions. This was revealed by the Deputy Finance Minister Ms Saada Mkuya as she was speaking to the Parliament.

The government, through Bank of Tanzania, has issued guidelines to financial institutions on how to start payment systems online so as to improve the technology, she said.

The aim, she said, is to reduce or completely do away with challenges that come with online banking. She was responding to a question that said that advances in technology had brought both development and some challenges, including theft in banks through information technology.

They wanted to know how prepared the government was in confronting this challenge. Ms Saada Mkuya said in order to confront the challenge of online theft in banks, the Bank of Tanzaniaa has asked banks to use new technology Uero Master Card Visa, which is EMV-compliant and uses a chip-based system.

“The government wants banks to stop using the old system of using magnetic stripes which are outdated and can easily be manipulated to steal money from banks,” she said.

Credit: Daily News

Samsung Galaxy S4 Gets Pentagon Approval, Breaking BlackBerry’s Hold On The US Government

Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S4 has received security approval from the US Department of Defense (DoD), making it the company’s first device to gain US government certification. The endorsement also covers Samsung’s Knox security system and clears the way for the device to be used as part of a new policy for US government staff

This approval is in line with a DoD announcement from February that will open its communications networks to smartphones and tablets from Apple and Google by February 2014.

Airtel’s Acquisition of Ugandan Operator Warid Causes Anxiety Among Customers

Bharti Airtel acquisition Warid Telecom has put Warid customers on edge as some are concerned that they won’t be able to maintain their numbers. The deal which is Airtel’s first in-market acquisitin in history, has seen customers suggest that they may end up missing out on popular products currently offered on the Warid network. Head of Communications at the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), Fred Otunnu has gone out to reassure customers saying that the regulator will safeguard their interests. 

Before granting any two companies a transfer of license, the regulator examines the technical, finance and business models of the companies. The process can take up to 45 days according to the law in Uganda.

Samsung Galaxy S 4 gets security approval from Pentagon

Barely a week after the start of shipping, Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 already has a feather in the cap in the name of Pentagon Security approval. This means the Galaxy S 4 is approved for use by the US Defence Agencies, a position only previously reserved for the fruity devices from Blackberry, formerly RIM.

Samsung had previously promised to eat into Blackberry’s pie with security feature KNOX. And they did develop it in a way that it doesn’t interfere with personal life.

Tanzania To Buy New Biometric System (BVR) For Voters

The government of Tanzania is seeking financial support to buy a new biometric system (BVR) for voter registration in preparation for the 2015 General Elections.

The whole decision was made by the government the main stakeholder, Justice Damian Lubuva, the Chairman of the Tanzania Electoral Commission (NEC), said.

He said: “There is no need to keep the process a secret from the public. Everything will be known after we complete the whole tendering procedure.”

He was reassuring the public about the transparency of the process after some quarters raised questions about possible mischief.

What Your Facebook Profile Says About You

You have a facebook account and you have some friends,  some random people visit your profile to see what it looks like, and some will send you friend requests. While some are doing that, others come to your profile to find out who you really are. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present what your Facebook profile says about you.

Upwards of 1,000 friends.

You are just not into confrontation. You would rather scroll through endless updates and commentary from people you met one time at a party six years ago then suffer the momentary tedium of weeding people out, and the potential fallout of some rando being like “Hey, bro, I thought we were friends.” While it’s understandable that saying to someone, albeit indirectly, that they are no longer important to you or relevant to your life is difficult, it has become nothing short of a necessity in our modern world. If you have a number of friends that is at least 10 times as high as the actual amount of people you really know/care about in life, you need to grow some conviction and start at least getting rid of people whose names you don’t even recognize.

Samsung Galaxy S4 gets Pentagon approval, breaking BlackBerry’s hold on the US government

Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S4 has received security approval from the US Department of Defense (DoD), making it the company’s first device to gain US government certification. The endorsement also covers Samsung’s Knox security system and clears the way for the device to be used as part of a new policy for US government staff

This approval is in line with a DoD announcement from February that will open its communications networks to smartphones and tablets from Apple and Google by February 2014.

Samsung’s news come one day after BlackBerry announced that the DoD had cleared its new line of BlackBerry 10 phones, and its existing line of PlayBook tablets for use. That news was a boost to the struggling Canadian device maker, but it will have to make do with sharing its position in government with Samsung and Apple; a DoD spokesperson said the latter’s iPhone and iPad devices should gain approval this month.

It was previously reported that the White House is ready to swap its fleet of BlackBerry smartphones for a more flexible option that lets employees choose from Samsung’s Galaxy range, or Apple’s iPhone and iPad products. That Samsung is now certified for use within the Department of Defence is proof that the growth of the Korean company and the BYOD (bring your own device) trend has changed the BlackBerry-only mentality in the US government.

Reuters reports that the Pentagon has a fleet of around 600,000 smartphones, of which 470,000 are BlackBerry devices. The majority of the 41,000 Apple and 8,700 Android devices are involved in pilot or test programs.

Samsung is upping its focus on business and enterprise users — having launched a new global marketing campaign this week, and it would be a hugely symbolic win if the company were able to make a dent in BlackBerry’s position with the US.

The company unveiled the much-anticipated Galaxy S4 at a media event in New York in March. The device went on sale in 60 countries late last month.

The phone is a follow-up to the Galaxy S3, which passed 40 million channel sales in January. That milestone was well timed and it put Samsung’s Galaxy S series past 100 million channel sales. This time around, Samsung is expecting even bigger things from flagship phone, and breaking into the US government would be a mark of its progress.

Headline image via Greg Wood /Getty Images

SOURCE: TNW

More Women Own Smartphones Than Men [Infographic]

As smartphones shift from the realm of early adoption to mainstream use, the demographics of smartphone users are also shifting strongly. A new UK survey has found that more women are using smartphones now than men, and in general users are increasingly older.

It's a pretty clear trend, if you look at the infographic provided byeDigitalResearch and IMRG. In 2010, when smartphones had only penetrated 38% of the UK market, 63% of smartphone owners were men and 37% were women. Contrast that with 2013, when smartphones hold 60% of the UK user base, and you have 58% female smartphone users and 42% male.

Older consumers are owning smartphones, as well, as the devices move from purely business use to consumer ownership. In 2010, a little under a third of all smartphones were owned by people aged 45-74. It's a little hard to get an exact percentage from the displayed pie chart, but in 2013 that age group now makes up about 45% of the overall smartphone population.

That stats show other interesting phenomena in the UK: the rise of browsing as a smartphone activity, as well as the fall of Nokia and the rise of Apple and Samsung as smartphone manufacturers sold in the UK.

Take a look at the infographic below to see other stats from across the pond.

Lead image courtesy of Shutterstock.

SOURCE: Readwrite.com

Instagram Adds People-Tagging to Photos

Instagram is adding one of Facebook's most popular features — photo tagging — to its iOS and Android apps Thursday. You can now tag people in photos, and browse feeds of photos you and others appear in.

Previously, the only way to find out whether a photo of you was uploaded to Instagram was to crawl through your activity feed, hoping someone had mentioned your username in a caption (i.e., @laureni). Likewise, there's been no easy way to share a photo someone uploaded of you to your own followers; oftentimes, I see friends share screenshots of another user's photo that they appear in, captioned with the hashtag #regram.

Unfortunately, @mentions will not be automatically converted into photo tags, a spokesperson for Instagram confirmed. If you want to add tags to your old photos, you'll have to do it manually, one by one.

Now, when someone tags you in a photo, you'll receive a notification and the photo will be added to a new "Photos of You" section — again, just like Facebook. You can adjust your settings so photos don't appear in that section until you approve them. "Photos of You" will go public on profiles on May 16.

SOURCE: Mashable