PANTAMI CALLS FOR GLOBAL COLLABORATION IN DEVELOPING DIGITAL ECONOMIES AS NIGERIA GIVES SCORECARD ON WORLD STAGE

PANTAMI CALLS FOR GLOBAL COLLABORATION IN DEVELOPING DIGITAL ECONOMIES AS NIGERIA GIVES SCORECARD ON WORLD STAGE

·

Leader of the Nigerian delegation to the on-going LEAP Technology Conference and Exhibition in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), has called on global economies particularly, member states of the Digital Cooperation Organisation (DCO) to prioritise and adopt collaborative strategies and initiatives as a vital part of the efforts to achieve digitalization.

Professor Pantami made the call on while speaking at a special DCO high-powered panel session titled: Deep Dive:The Road To International Digital Economy Through Innovation-Bridging Digital Divides And Breaking Down Barriers.

“In my opinion, the way other countries can benefit from the progress we have made so far, is through collaborations and partnerships. There is no monopoly of wisdom and knowledge, your strength could be the weakness of your neighbour and your weakness could be the strength of your neighbour. Through partnerships and collaborations, we can complement each other. DCO has been established in order to support, collaborate and partner with each other because, our strength is in our unity. When members of the DCO agree to take a certain position, there is no institution in the world that will not listen to them”.

He further emphasized that “developing a digital economy is hinged on two factors; digital innovation and entrepreneurship”.

Responding to enquiries by the DCO Secretary General, Ms Deema Yahya, who also moderated the session on the strategies adopted by Nigeria in its digital success story, the honourable Minister noted that digital innovation, digital entrepreneurship and enabling policies have been the bedrock of the fastest growing sector in the Nigerian economy. “The Nigerian government has established twenty one national policies which are in full effect to encourage development in the sector, the establishment of a National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, aggressive investments in digital skills capacity building including championing a paradigm shift of prioritizing skills over unproven certificates are some of the initiatives we have explored in developing the sector in Nigeria”.

Speaking on the sector’s score card, Professor Pantami highlighted the significant increase in revenue generation, a consistent increase in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which currently stands at 18.44%, an unprecedented increase in the national data base which had remained at thirty nine million for thirteen years to ninety five million within two years and three months, ICT intervention centers, digital skills acquisition among others.

Recall that a recent independent assessment of the sector, conducted by KPMG and DCFO returned an unprecedented pass mark for the sector.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SLVA Cybersecurity and ContraForce partner to offer cutting-edge Security Operations technology for SMEs

SLVA Cybersecurity and ContraForce partner to offer cutting-edge Security Operations technology for SMEs

 

 

SLVA Cybersecurity, in collaboration with ContraForce are bringing enterprise-scale cyber security to small and medium enterprises with 24/7 threat detection, actionable response plans, time-saving automation processes and more.

 

SMEs today face the challenge of navigating a complex threat landscape complete with technical jargon and the minefield of choosing a vendor with a comprehensive solution to meet their needs.

 

These factors have been a crucial driver in the development of ContraForce, which strives to make security accessible and affordable through partners like SLVA CyberSecurity.

 

“By partnering with SLVA, we’re able to expand our offerings to both South Africa and the broader African continent,” says Stanislav Golubchik, CEO and Co-Founder of ContraForce. “Cybersecurity from SMBs to small and mid-sized enterprises isn’t just a problem in the United States— it’s a global issue that needs to be addressed. ContraForce and SLVA CyberSecurity share this vision and together, we can make major strides to ensure businesses of all sizes have access to cybersecurity.”

 

Patrick Evans, CEO of SLVA CyberSecurity, indicates that because a majority of SMEs utilize a Microsoft ecosystem, ContraForce has integrated deeply with native Microsoft technologies— especially Microsoft Sentinel, Defender and Microsoft 365.

 

“ContraForce’s availability in the Microsoft ecosystem extends SLVA’s reach to a broader customer base, making cybersecurity more attainable for businesses that need it most.‍ Further, its availability in the Azure Marketplace enables customers to simply and efficiently procure ContraForce through their existing contracts with Microsoft.”

 

“Believe it or not, if you’re unsure how to start (but are reading this article), you are actually way ahead of most organisations. The key to getting started is to find tools that are built for simplicity with your specific needs in mind,” Evans adds.
‍

“ContraForce delivers a radically simple security operations tool. It’s designed specifically for SMEs to be used by IT generalists, not experienced cybersecurity professionals. The platform provides around-the-clock threat detection and response, then verifies each threat so IT teams aren’t sifting through insignificant alerts. It walks users through guided remediation steps so there’s no learning curve on how to respond to threats. With incident report playbooks, users can resolve threats with a single click.” 

 

Until now, managing security operations required a highly-skilled, expensive SecOps team, available 24/7 who relied on manual or semi-automated processes to respond to events.

 

“By way of contrast, ContraForce is a highly automated solution for SMEs which works in an organization of five people equally as well as it works in an organization of 5,000 people.” Evans adds that the financial implications of a ransomware attack are staggering. “SMEs are often under-resourced and understandably cannot direct sufficient time and attention to security. However, 50% of SMEs will experience a breach in the coming year and 60% of SMEs that do experience a ransomware attack can expect to be out of business within six months.”

 

ContraForce implementation is seamless as installation and deployment takes place online within minutes. In addition, the platform connects to existing security investments, making it easy to set up. And because it is AI/ML-based, it immediately adapts to each business’s unique environment to categorize threats accordingly and respond automatically to incidents as and when then they occur.

 

“This is no-code security automation that considers SMEs’ IT environments, whether on-prem or in the cloud, and ticks all compliance and analytics boxes within a single easy-to-use dashboard. Ultimately, 90% of attacks can be remediated, many of which can be done automatically, provided a business has the right technology in place,” says Evans.

Patrick Evans.png