< PreviousYAHCLICK CHAMPIONS DIGITAL INCLUSION IN SOUTH AFRICA Company announces partnership with MorClick and the launch of YahClick Express wi-fiin South Africa. Georgina Ford interviews Farhad Khan, CEO, YahClick Tell me more about the partner-Tell me more about the partner- ship you are announcing, who is it ship you are announcing, who is it with and what is it all about?with and what is it all about? In November we announced a long-term strategic partnership with leading telecoms provider MorClick to be our master dis- tributor in South Africa. Under the agree- ment, MorClick will distribute YahClick services, products, and solutions across the country, supporting our delivery of reliable, convenient, and affordable satellite con- nectivity services to home users, consum- ers on the move, and businesses. These services include YahClick Express wi-fi, which we also announced the launch of in November in partnership with MorClick. YahClick Express Wi-fimarks a big step forward for connectivity in South Africa, being a service that is accessible to anyone in the community when they enter one of the coverage hotspots located in many public spaces with high footfall. MorClick will apply its experience in the local market, expertise in the telecom- munications sector, and its expansive retail and distribution network to identify and acquire new customers who will benefit from YahClick services. Ultimately, this partnership is about helping to bring the many advantages of digital inclusion to more people across South Africa. South Africa is a massive and South Africa is a massive and diverse nation with a huge gap diverse nation with a huge gap service purposely designed to meet this growing demand. The service provides wi-fi hotspots for consumers to access reliable VSAT (very-small-aperture-terminal) internet connectivity at selected public touch-points, including tuck shops, taxi ranks, taverns, and spaza shops. In Q1 of 2020, we will also roll out further wi-fi solutions for communities whose com- munication needs and requirements differ to those catered for by the public hotspots, with a focus on home users and community facilities such as hospitals, universities, between the levels of connectivity between the levels of connectivity available. How does YahClick available. How does YahClick cater to multiple consumer cater to multiple consumer segments?segments? South Africa and the wider African con- tinent still struggle to connect all of their populations with quality broadband in suburbs of major cities, smaller towns, and rural areas. However, this challenge does represent an opportunity for broad- band providers to cater to the increas- ing demand for internet from a growing population. YahClick Express wi-fiis a Johannesburg, South Africa. 20www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW YAHCLICK CommsMEA December 2019and libraries. This is another way of further strengthening our contribution to bridging the digital divide. We are helping to open up new business opportunities and connectivity to a wide range of industries including education, agriculture, healthcare, oil & gas, financial services and home users. In support of these opportunities, the government and various stakeholders are working together to create a suitable environment to do business. We consider South Africa to be a major hub for ICT in Africa, and are pleased to play a role in supporting the sec- tor’s progress. Is satellite internet allowing Is satellite internet allowing remote communities to be more remote communities to be more connected?connected? Satellite internet does overcome some of the major hurdles standing between remote communities and connectivity. Un- derdeveloped connectivity infrastructure is one common challenge, as it prevents terrestrial internet services from physi- cally reaching rural communities. Another obstacle to connectivity is cost. Satellite broadband, and in particular, services like YahClick that use the Ka-band High Throughput Satellite (HTS) spot beam technology, represent an affordable option to overcome this barrier. These same issues persist in South Africa, which is why we pursued the partnership with MorClick. Approximately 34 per cent of the country’s 58 million- strong population live in rural areas, which represents a vast number of people who may experience unreliable connectivity or none at all. This connectivity shortfall leads to a lack of access to government services and other essential digital services in the modern economy, which holds some in the population back from contributing to our hyper-connected world. Connectivity is therefore not only extremely beneficial to the individual, but also South Africa’s wider social and economic aspirations. How would you say YahClick is How would you say YahClick is helping change people’s lives?helping change people’s lives? Economic growth correlates directly with increases in the broadband penetration rate of nations. This is not a mere sug- gestion, it is indisputable, especially in the case of developing countries in Africa These rises are directly tied to better edu- cation, healthcare and wider employment, all of which also improve the overall quality of life while helping the continent to un- lock its full social and economic potential. Our long-term strategic partnership with MorClick will support our delivery of reli- able, convenient, and affordable satellite connectivity services to meet the demands of consumers, home users, and enterprises. Beyond the benefits brought by Yah- Click’s new services to end users in South Africa, our partnership with MorClick will help to create employment opportunities that stimulate entrepreneurship and the growth of SMEs across multiple sectors. The distributors and installers who help provide our service are often local entre- preneurs, usually one or two people that own and operate a small business in rural towns and villages or areas outside of major cities. For these entrepreneurs, YahClick services represent an additional revenue stream, strengthening their income and helping their business to grow and thrive. More specifically, as a local vendor of YahClick Express wi-fi, entrepreneurs can sell wi-fidata packages to those in the local community to supplement their existing business ventures. Every vendor, distributor and installer we work with is certified by YahClick, which validates their business. Additional- ly, we’ll regularly hold in-country training sessions with these individuals to train and up-skill them, building their professional abilities so they can further prosper. Anything else you would like to Anything else you would like to mention?mention? Our recent partnership with MorClick and announcement of the new Wi-fiservices launching in South Africa are all part of the YahClick growth strategy to extend satel- lite connectivity in Africa. We’re taking steps to reach more users across the conti- nent and continue the growth momentum we’ve built over recent years. YahClick’s rapid expansion gathered more pace in Africa with the commercial services launch of the Al Yah 3 satellite, continuing a story that began on the continent in South Africa in 2012. We consider South Africa to be a major hub for ICT in Africa, and are pleased to play a role in supporting the sector’s progress.” Farhad Khan, CEO, YahClick Cape Town, South Africa. 21www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW YAHCLICK CommsMEA December 2019Empowering the open source community For more stories, check out commsmea.com. Follow CommsMEA on Twitter: @COMMSMEA Denise Dumas, vice president, Operating System Platform at Red Hat discussed open source software while visiting Red Hat’s Dubai office How is Red Hat empowering open source communities? Red Hat invests heavily in open source communities, offering our employees’ time and skills in many upstreams to advance the pace of innovation and support our customers’ interests. And when Red Hat purchases a company, it ensures that any proprietary software becomes available as open source. For instance, just this month, Red Hat shared Quay, the formerly propri- etary container registry and security scan- ner software, as an open source upstream available to all. More and more telecoms companies are choosing to go with open source soware in the Middle East region. Photo by Alex Holyoake on Unsplash Does open source benefit telecoms companies? Absolutely! Most Telecoms today are huge consumers of open source software in their infrastructures and closely follow develop- ments upstream. OpenStack manages many private clouds in Telecoms today, and container solutions like OpenShift and Kubernetes are emerging as the next wave as the Tel- ecoms transition to 5G. What has the uptake/usage of open source software been like within the telecoms sector in the Middle East? Awareness of open source in the Middle East is growing in many sectors, particu- larly in the telecommunications sphere. As telecommunications operators seek to evolve from physical to digital players, open source ecosystems and solutions are being implemented to optimise and simpli- fy operations, reduce costs, and facilitate digital transformation agendas. From Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, to everywhere in between, open source so- lutions are being unlocked as cost-effective, flexible, reliable, secure, and alternative 22www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW DENISE DUMAS CommsMEA December 2019 For more stories, check out commsmea.com. Follow CommsMEA on Twitter: @COMMSMEA foundational systems to drive innovation and digital transformation. For telecom- munications organisations, open source will enable improved delivery of digital services, the ability to introduce new digi- tal services faster, and the capabilities to leverage insights from data to create new revenue streams. I believe there is an open source software available for an end-to- end telecoms network, how would it benefit telecoms companies to use open source from end-to-end? Would they still need some propri- etary software? Generally, at least today, open source is in the infrastructure and there is proprietary software at the application level. And ap- plications are often very specialised, and designed for specific conditions and use cases rather than common problems, so it might be harder to create a community of general interest around them. But, application packaging is changing; applications are increasingly becoming containerised, and could eventually evolve into shared micro-services bound by well- documented interfaces. Is there anything else you would like to add? Red Hat, and I personally, are very happy to see the depth of talent and excitement around technology found in the local uni- versities. It’s encouraging to see so many smart young women studying for technical ca- reers, and the excellent faculty members leading them. As operators seek to evolve from physical to digital players, open source ecosystems and solutions are being implemented to optimise and simplify operations, reduce costs, and facilitate digital transformation agendas.” Denise Dumas, vice president, Operating System Platform at Red Hat Open source soware solutions are becoming a popular choice for telecoms operators. 23www.commsmea.com DENISE DUMAS INTERVIEW CommsMEA December 2019OMAN IN FOCUS Sherry Zameer, SVP, mobile services & IoT, CIS, Middle East and Africa at Thales discusses Oman’s telecoms roadmap and competition in the marketplace Sherry Zameer, SVP, mobile services & IoT, CIS, Middle East and Africa at Thales 24www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW SHERRY ZAMEER CommsMEA December 2019How far is Oman along the path to its goal of having all homes and busi- nesses connected to broadband by 2040? What steps are being taken reach these goals? The National Vision 2040 programme aims to increase the low level of fixed broadband penetration in the country with a rapid expansion of mobile broadband network, ironing out challenges in terrain, spectrum and technology. Experts have already begun mapping out the blueprint for broadband expansion in Oman as part of the Vision 2040. The strategy touches on aspects such as regulation and licensing, investment in future proof technology and creating ecosystems of stakeholders. We’ll be able to see the changes in next phase of the programme from 2021-2025. How are Oman telecoms operators planning to build out their revenue streams in an increasingly competi- tive market? The National Vision 2040 programme lays out the future plans for a new digital economy for Oman and telecom operators are working to provide affordable and effi- cient connectivity for the country’s citizens and visitors. This will involve new revenue streams from IoT, cloud services, eGovern- ment services, mobile financial services and smart city projects, reducing the load on public infrastructure. These will also go a long way in creating partnerships in media and entertainment to deliver a one- stop-shop user experience. How are the soon-to-be-three opera- tors differentiating themselves? Is each developing USPs to retain market share? The most important part of the Vision 2040 programme is to realise that all stakeholders will need to co-exist in the new ecosystem. With that in mind, Oman is attracting global brands that bring with them best-of-breed innovation and technology. Traditional business models of voice and data do not deliver the expecta- tions in terms of revenue growth, and this is why the mobile operators in Oman are upgrading their technological offers. This evolutionary mindset is vital for companies to remain relevant and benefit from new digital economies of the future. The biggest differentiator therefore, will be technol- ogy, which is why we are seeing mobile operators accelerate the deployment of 5G services in the country. Is 5G likely to be implemented once the third player has joined the Oman telecoms pack? What other changes are we likely to see? The deployment of 5G services is driven by a longer-term vision rather than competi- tive forces in the market. Oman is going through a digital revolution and to be a stakeholder in this future, mobile opera- tors in Oman are investing in the rollout of 5G networks. In this process, they are transforming the lives of enterprises and citizens in the way that they live, work and play. Smartphone manufacturers are also starting to launch 5G variants of their flag- ship devices and we can expect to see the increase in the adoption of 5G towards the end of 2019 and in 2020. The rollout of 5G also creates a platform for new services in The most important part of the Vision 2040 programme is to realise that all stakeholders will need to co-exist in the new ecosystem.” Sherry Zameer, SVP, mobile services & IoT, CIS, Middle East and Africa at Thales VR/AR and Smart Cities, which transforms industries like utilities, agriculture and transport, enabling new revenue streams for stakeholders. This is an exciting time. Oman has a high population of young skilled engineers who can embrace these changes and start participating in these new economies powered by fast, low la- tency 5G network. What steps are currently being taken by network operators to build out NFV and SDN? When will we see implementation? As part of the 5G rollout programme, mo- bile operators today are evolving their cur- rent architecture and leveraging on state- of-the-art cloud methodologies towards an NFV and SDN compliant architecture. Tier 1 mobile operators started implementation in the region last year as part of a longer- term strategy. The services that IoT, Smart Cities and future 5G services like V2X offer, operators are able to leverage on the per- formance, agility, efficiency and elasticity that a NFV and SDN architecture promises to deliver. Oman will soon have three MNOs. 25www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW SHERRY ZAMEER CommsMEA December 2019FIXING FRAUD VOX Carrier CEO Ehsan Ahmadi discusses how MNOs can mitigate fraud on their networks 26www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW VOX CARRIER CEO EHSAN AHMADI CommsMEA December 2019F raud in the telecoms market is constantly evolving and changing. This is what makes fraud identifica- tion and mitigation challenging for mobile network operators (MNOs) and other service providers. At Vox Carrier, we have identified over 50 types of fraud and not all of these are understood or recognised across the industry. With the sophistication and complexity of fraud in telecoms, it can only be analysed and recognised through gaining a complete picture of fraud across different service types. If an MNO or service provider only looks at fraud in SMS, for example, it might be missing patterns of fraudulent behaviour in Voice. You have to have a comprehensive view of potential fraud and that includes things like SMS, Voice and data, on both incoming and out- going traffic together. That is the only way to really gain a full of understanding of the different kinds of fraud in the market and how they impact a telco’s business. HOW DOES FRAUDULENT ACTIVITY AFFECT TELCOS? It is all about monetisation. That is a big word, but it covers all of the facets of fraud losses. At the most basic level, fraud causes lost revenue, but it also drives increases in CAPEX and OPEX as the telco tries to fight fraud. Brands can be damaged. Partners and customers lose trust and loyalty. Quality of service and experience can suf- fer as well. All of these things impact the monetisation of services and that’s critical to MNOs and service providers. They have an opportunity in Application-to-Person (A2P) messaging and working with some of the largest online brands in the world, but if fraud losses are at 50 per cent of revenue, they’ll never be successful. Fraud makes it difficult for them to monetise new services and create profitable revenue streams. It is that critical. The best fraud solutions give telcos a comprehensive view of fraud across their services and are backed up by guarantees in terms of stopping revenue leakage. Telcos don’t need more complexity in their operations. They need solutions that are delivered as a managed service that can solve fraud across Voice, SMS and A2P. They also need to be constantly evolving, learning and adapting to stay ahead of fraudsters. That is why a managed service is so important. We use the latest technologies and best industry practices for software engineer- ing, and R&D in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to continually opti- mise our approach. Our solution uses more than 10 years of fraud pattern data and we match that with intelligent automation and analytics, as well as experience. When our solution is deployed, we can stop 99.99 per cent of fraud losses and we guarantee that for our customers. AI is a very powerful technology that can be used in data analytics, patterns identification and traffic predictions. AI not only can ana- lyse every SMS or voice call on the network, but can learn as it collects more traffic intelligence. Based on patterns and analyt- ics, it can identify fraudulent attempts and predict other types of fraud. What we find really useful is AI’s ability to look at across multiple fraud scenarios in real-time and take action, make configuration changes or deploy new traffic rules in milliseconds. It simply isn’t possible for a human being to review this much data. AI shifts fraud detection from reactive to proactive. Many fraud systems look at call data records (CDRs) after calls happen. The fraud will have already occurred. That simply isn’t good enough when billions are being lost on fraud every year. Bots or software robots are in charge with testing, auditing and executing vari- ous analytical tasks, or taking action on live traffic systems. They are orchestrated by an AI engine. Bots are working 24/7 and they are 100x times faster than humans in executing the tasks. With the sophistication and complexity of fraud in telecoms, it can only be analysed and recognised through gaining a complete picture of fraud across different service types.” VOX Carrier CEO Ehsan Ahmadi We don’t see fraud happening in silos and neither should anti-fraud solutions. We’re experts in fraud, but we also see the bigger picture of enabling MNOs and service providers to effectively monetise their services. That’s a big differentiator in terms of approaching the market. We see our anti-fraud solution as the beginning of a monetisation journey we take with our customers. In terms of our solution, we’re managing Voice and SMS traffic at the same time, constantly feeding the AI-powered analytics engine with new SMS and voice traffic data and comparing it to more than 10 years of global Voice and SMS data. Based on our competitive analysis, none of the current solutions in the market are offering such a level of intelligence. This is what makes our solution very effective in particular cases like SIM-box frauds, which are some of the biggest responsible when it comes to telecom fraud. Telecoms fraud continues to evolve un- der different forms and techniques, fuelled by frequent changes in regulations, devel- opments in roaming agreements, continu- ous networks evolution, and never-ending deployment of new services. Fraudsters are always researching for new ideas and targets, as well as always increasing the complexity and difficulty of their fraudu- lent operations. We genuinely believe in protecting Voice and SMS revenue streams by fighting bypass and fraudulent activity which affect quality and trustfulness of these communi- cation channels. Customers need to trust these commu- nication channels in order to keep using them, and that’s why it is important to secure high quality and reliability of Voice and SMS traffic. Our mission is to help 27www.commsmea.com INTERVIEW VOX CARRIER CEO EHSAN AHMADI CommsMEA December 2019I t’s possible that the earliest security predictions began on that old medium known as print, but that medium’s no- toriously poor search capabilities mean the answer remains elusive. One thing’s for certain, the practice of security predictions has evolved over the year to now showcase a diversity of flavours that range from the practical and scientific to the fanciful. While some security soothsayers ‘predict’ trends that are already well underway and established, others seem to rely on the cy- ber-equivalent of water-witching sticks to issue wild prophesies. A confluence of fac- tors means 2020 is primed for the breakout of some spectacular new threat vectors as well as the re-emergence of some old threat vectors that present new wrinkles. We also provide five-year cyberthreat predictions that highlight emerging technologies and tectonic tech shifts that will have profound by users. So, threat actors have concocted new attack methods. Since many of the cloud-based applications auto-update, cyber criminals are now targeting cloud- based update mechanisms. The attack tech- niques waged include man-in-the-middle attacks, spoofed DNS, stolen keys, and even compromising cloud accounts to infect applications and auto-update unsuspecting end users with malware. Since the vast majority of users unre- servedly trust the auto-update mechanisms of their applications, they are oblivious to the threats when their cloud connection is compromised. In 2020, this topic will com- mand headlines as high-profile applica- tions and operating systems are exploited by these cunning emerging threats. 2. Reruns of old CVEs January 2020 will usher in the end of life of implications for securing the businesses of the future, upending some of today’s standard security practices. FOR 2020 1. The death of traditional software pi- racy, the rise of malware auto-updates Just over 10 years ago, the internet was riddled with Warez, keygen (key genera- tors), and pirated software websites. It was easy to find versions of your favourite operating systems, applications, and tools with cracked versions and licence keys that operated under the guise of being free— even though they were illegal and probably infected with malware. With the paradigm shift to the cloud and application stores, many of these popular applications have disappeared from Warez sites, resulting in a welcome decrease in malware-infected applications downloaded 2020 prediction contributors: Morey Haber, CTO/CISO at BeyondTrust and Christopher Hills, senior solutions architect, Office of the CTO at BeyondTrust look at what cyberattack vectors will be the issue in 2020 Cyberattackers are getting more and more sophisticated. IMAGE credit: Photo by Nahel Abdul Hadi on Unsplash 28www.commsmea.comCommsMEA December 2019 SECURITY PREDICTIONSWindows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. With millions of devices still running these operating systems, a myriad of vulner- abilities will continue to exist unless they are patched, or the operating systems are replaced. Microsoft is unlikely to patch any new critical vulnerabilities, which will pose an unacceptable risk to many organisa- tions. These assets, and their vulnerabili- ties, will be documented on vulnerability reports as an end of life operating system and vulnerabilities that are aging. These make for an easy asset attack vector for threat actors, and this will be especially true for new vulnerabilities that have no remediation path after January 2020. To that end, vulnerabilities uncovered years ago will return to the cyber spotlight because of active exploitation and their age. This will make an old CVE a ‘new’ threat. And, since it is costly and poten- tially technically difficult to replace some of these end-of-life operating systems, 2020 will experience threat actors actively assailing these systems since they present the lowest hanging fruit in many organisa- tions for exploitation. 3. Identity-theft royal flush - owning every account an individual owns For the last several years, we have wit- nessed a surge of privileged attack vectors. A typical modus operandi involves threat actors compromising accounts to gain a foothold, then engaging in lateral move- ment, and then compromising additional assets and accounts via stolen credentials. The end goal varies—from the exfiltration of sensitive data, to gaining a persistent presence, or causing a business disrup- tion. The year 2020 expects to showcase more of this, but there will be an additional component in lateral movement that se- curity professionals need to raise visibility for; account-to-account lateral movement compromising a user’s entire identity. As threat actors refine their strategies, they will begin to target all the accounts associated with an identity (human or non-human) and impersonate users via DeepFake technology. This will be characterised, not only by DeepFake email and SMS messages, but also a distinct rise in sophistication that entails DeepFake phone calls with spoofed accents and vocal patterns, social media hijacking, and even biometric hacking based on data that has already been compromised. Identity theft will bluntly occur due to malicious artificial intelligence software used to impersonate an identity in novel ways we have not even yet conceived. 4. An election on the edge of cybersecurity It matters not whether you are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green Party, an In- dependent—or even unable to participate in the US elections—the potential for elec- tion hacking has implications for everyone. The votes in the next major US elections will most likely be tabulated and recorded by person, by voting precinct, by county, and by state. At each step in the voting process, paper and electronic systems will record our votes and be stored in secure systems to tally who our next president and regional government officials will be. This is a contentious election cycle. Considering all the previous allegations regarding voter fraud and foreign government hacking of our electoral system, as well as old school paper ballot issues (ie hanging chads), the 2020 United States election will doubtless- ly prove to be one for the record books— and potentially one to dread. While data loss security incidents tend to dominate news cycles, election security helps to really bring the critical issue of data integrity into focus. For the upcoming election, it’s not a matter of who actually wins, but rather whether or not the votes, storage, and tallying of the populace’s opin- ion has been tampered, altered, hacked, or degraded in any fashion that will make headline news and cast doubt on the integ- rity of the entire process. This will be true regardless of whether or not threat actors or foreign governments truly succeed in altering the outcome of the United States electoral process. Ethical hackers have already demon- strated at cybersecurity conferences the vulnerability of electronic voting systems. The risks of voter fraud, through electronic hacking, will be a top news story in 2020. The issue will particularly be stirred up by those individuals who find themselves at the losing end of the final ballot numbers. Morey Haber, CTO/ CISO at BeyondTrust.t 29www.commsmea.com SECURITY PREDICTIONS CommsMEA December 2019Next >