Steady decline in mobile malware

Make rooM For woMen on international woMen’s day

International Women’s Day was established because there is disparity in our communities and workplaces with regard to the treatment of women.

A day in which we can highlight this and promote awareness also creates opportunities to close the gaps, and work toward complete equality in workplaces and homes.

There is certainly corporate clarity that the best way to achieve workplace equality is through education.

Education empowers not only through skills, but also empowers women by giving motivation and confidence.

Education levels the playing field for women. Sitting around a boardroom table it is often easy for men to feel they have the upper hand in discussions. Women graduates can take part in these conversations with confidence, their knowledge strong and their opinions relevant.

We have way too often had ladies on the other side of the desk, having left abusive relationships, and now trying to secure work to support themselves. Women who have been in long term relationships have also often been homemakers, caregivers and baby sitters. Suddenly they need to play in the same arena as other women and men in a corporate, this (sadly but truly) means they need to have more to offer. The starting point is going to be up to date and relevant education.

Women with an education will not be beholden to their romantic partners. They can earn money, support themselves, achieve promotions and consider themselves mobile in terms of job prospects. But what if you have left an abusive relationship and need to still earn your degree? But also need to work? It is essential to find an institution with a flexible approach to Higher Education studies enabling women to continue to work, run a home and get a degree.

Having dealt with students from vastly different backgrounds, Boston endeavoured to make the student experience as smooth as possible and as effective as possible. The Boston ecosystem caters to all students, but it enables ease of study for female students even more.

• Women do not need to travel to ‘class’, all lectures are online, creating a safer study journey. And if they are looking after children they do not need to hire baby sitters or worse, leave their kids on their own in order to attend class.

• Working women can study any time and any place. (Tessa, one of our degree students who was working full time and looking after twins, finished her BCom in three years, the minimum time possible!)

• The ‘bespoke’ methodology of Boston caters to those who wish to take 5 modules in one semester and 1 in the next semester, allowing for life events to fit into studies.

Women need to find an institution that caters to them in a bespoke way.

This in terms of a range of qualifications on offer, and the flexibility of when and where to study.

On international women’s day we look to boost women. Studies will prepare them for the working world. At Boson as an example, they will graduate armed with not only the academic skills but also the soft skills that come from the discipline of online learning, and the assertiveness you need to develop to ask your questions, as well as the confidence from being a graduate.

Business and workplace Boston has a flat organisational culture which seeps through to the students. What this means for students is that all are treated the same, and female students feel as valued as their male counterparts. All organisations should identify and better understand how to attract, develop, and retain female talent at all levels.

On this Women’s Day, we need to work to close the unconscious discrepancies that have been inculcated in society for both males and females in terms of which gender is better suited for different types of work and thinking. At Boston we want women to develop their potential beyond cultural and social stereotypes.

Tech Reporter

Following an analysis of the threat landscape of African countries, Kaspersky experts have indicated a steady decline in attacks on mobile devices in the region.

This is as cybercriminals focus on more complicated and profitable threats instead. These findings are featured in the company’s Mobile Threats in 2021 report.

In 2021 South African users faced 38% less mobile malware attacks than in 2020, while Mozambique saw a 48% decrease, followed by Botswana, 58%; Nigeria, 59%; Ethiopia 69% and Ghana 76%.

The only country where attacks increased was Angola, where mobile malware grew by 12%.

This is a reflection of the global trend, as cybercriminals tend to invest less into the mainstream threats that are successfully neutralised by modern security solutions. Instead, they choose to invest more into new mobile malware that has become increasingly complex, featuring new ways to steal users’ banking and gaming credentials, as well as other strands of personal data. For instance in 2021 Kaspersky detected more than 95 000 new mobile banking Trojans in the world, but the number of attacks using such malware remained similar. Additionally, the share of Trojans doubled, reaching 8, 8% in 2021.

In addition to the strategic changes on the mobile threat landscape, ex- perts also attribute the overall decline of mobile malware in 2021 to the enormous wave of attacks seen at the beginning of lockdown in 2020 as users were forced to work from home. That period also saw increased use of various video conferencing and entertainment apps, increasing the volume and spread of attack opportunities. Now that the situation has stabilised, cybercriminal activity declined.

Kaspersky security researcher Tatyana Shishkova says there has been fewer mobile attacks in general.

“However, the attacks we still see have become more complex and harder to spot. Cybercriminals tend to mask malicious apps under the guise of legitimate applications, which can be downloaded from official app stores. With mobile banking and payment apps becoming widespread, there is a higher chance of cybercriminals targeting these more actively. Staying cautious and careful on the internet and avoiding downloading unknown apps is good practice. I strongly recommend using a reliable solution, when it comes to the security of finances in particular, it is better to be safe than sorry,” she says.