Author: Gugu Lourie

Hackers got into the accounts of 1827 Vodafone UK customers last week, accessing victims’ bank sort codes, the last four digits of their bank accounts, their names and phone numbers. A Vodafone spokesman said in a statement that the incident was driven by criminals using email addresses and passwords acquired from an unknown source external to Vodafone. By Yule Edwards An attack like this demonstrates just how vulnerable we are as consumers. Telcos and other service providers require all sorts of personal and private information from us, including our banking details. This is understandable protection for organisations and key for their…

MTN shares chalked up some gains on Wednesday after wiping off more than R80 billion in the past week on its market value. By Gugu Lourie The stock has been hard hit by skittish investors who were worried about a Nigerian proposed R71 billion fine, which is due to be paid by the South African-based mobile phone operator by 16 November 2015 if a settlement is not reached. The stock gained 3.61% at R161.15 by 12:31pm on Wednesday, giving it a market capitalisation of R288 billion. MTN is still in discussion with the Nigerian authorities over the proposed fine. “MTN…

The Hawks seized 26 card skimming devices at a Serbian national’s house in Alberton, east of Johannesburg, on Tuesday. By Lizeka Tandwa, NewsAgency Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said about 1 500 bank cards and retail shop cards were also found during the raid. “This man has been on our radar for some time now and more arrests connected to this case are imminent. We are certain that he is part of a syndicate and we are close to uncovering everything,” Mulaudzi told News24. The 50-year-old man will appear in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Wednesday on charges of fraud. – News24

The sale of iBurst and Broadlink parent company WBS to technology company MultiSource has received final unconditional approval from the Competition Commission and ICASA. By Staff Writer MultiSource has now completed the acquisition of WBS. The current shareholders of MultiSource include consortiums led by Phumlani Moholi, former CTO of MTN, and the family interests of Paul Harris and Michael Jordaan, together with management. The future shareholding structure is being finalised but will include these parties as well as some new strategic ones. Now that the acquisition is finalised, the MultiSource team will have the opportunity to participate at a more…

Many of Shakespeare’s plays depend on mistaken identity. In Twelfth Night, Viola disguises herself as a boy, and is mistaken for her twin brother Sebastian, complicating an already complicated love triangle. By Toby Walsh Don’t forget, boys played girls back then. So we had a boy playing a girl pretending to be a boy mistaken for her twin brother. Have I lost you yet? Not surprisingly, it usually ended in comedy or tragedy. Or both. Shakespeare, of course, was only borrowing the dramatic idea of mistaken identity from the ancient Greeks. But mistaken identity is set to trouble our digital…

MTN Zakhele, the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) scheme of MTN, seems to be unfazed by the troubles bedeviling its parent company MTN Group. Despite MTN likely to face a more than R70 billion fine from the Nigerian authorities, MTN Zakhele is still going ahead with the listing of the  mobile phone operator’s black investors shareholding scheme on the JSE. By Gugu Lourie The leaders of MTN Zakhele – led by Sindi Mabaso-Koyana, the chairperson of MTN Zakhele – announced late on Tuesday that the listing of MTN Zakhele’s ordinary share on the BEE Segment of the main board of the…

Africa and Middle East biggest mobile phone operator MTN on Tuesday afternoon broke its silence on the Nigerian proposed R71 billion fine, saying the telco has operated its business in Africa’s biggest economy with “sound corporate governance”.  By Gugu Lourie In a move to break of its silence in the wake of the surprise more than R70 billion fine, MTN invoked the operators’ history in Africa’s populous country that gave it more than 60 million customers. The South African-based telco said as a company it owes its “founding and growth to the emerging world”. “We are conscious of our responsibility…

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications has expressed its concern at the budgetary management of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa). By Duncan Alfreds, NewsAgency “In regard to Icasa, the committee noted with concern its none achieved targets and the misalignment. That’s why the money was spent, but targets were not reached,” said committee chair Joyce Clementine Moloi-Moropa on the recommendations to parliament on Tuesday. Icasa recently told the committee in its annual report that it had underspent R29m of its annual budget, contributing to an organisational performance score of 29%. The committee also pointed to the vacancy list…

Ratna Siriah has been appointed as the new general manager for FOX International Channels Africa (FIC Africa) effective from next Monday, November 2. By Staff Writer She will be based in Johannesburg where she will assume the management of the FIC Africa team and all the company’s brands distributed in Africa which currently include pay networks in the entertainment, factual and sports segments including FOX, FOX Crime, FOX Life, FX, National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo Wild, National Geographic Gold, FOX Sports, FOX Sports 2 and Baby TV. The announcement was made by Adam Theiler, Executive Vice President of FOX…

Amid all the talk of analytics changing the way organizations operate and helping to uncover new business opportunities, one global financial institution is staying competitive with a more than 30-year-old database deployment. Jay Prag, the chief information officer of South Africa’s First National Bank (FNB), stopped by theCUBE this week to share the fascinating inside story. By Maria Deutscher, Silicon Angle While other users switched to newer software in order to keep up with evolving requirements, the Johannesburg-based financial services provider has continuously  improved and expanded upon implementation of IBM Corp.’s Information Management System since the original rollout in 1983.  Approximately…