Internet service providers in running battle with hackers

Nigeria: Information reaching Cyberlife has indicated a series of silent battles going on between some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country and a group of super-brilliant Nigerians who are hard at work hacking into the different servers of these Internet Providers obtaining their IP addresses, proxy codes, numbers and addresses and selling same to interested buyers.

It means that these persons who have bought these codes will automatically browse free of charge on the network of these Internet Providers. This period, we gather, usually lasts from three weeks to about a month before a technical personnel in the technical support departments of the affected ISPs detects the scam and blocks the code(s). Cyberlife gathered exclusively that two of the affected ISPs are major operators in the sector.

Sources, on the condition of anonymity said that because these hackers could not guarantee how long this period of “blissful” browsing will last, the fees charged for the codes are usually peanuts; most of the time not above a hundred naira.

Cyberlife also learnt that there are now countless secret blogs and chat rooms on the internet where information on these could now be easily obtained. These faceless hackers use the internet as their network platform to spread their tentacles and reach out to more buyers. When we pressed for specifics as regards the addresses, our sources refused to comment.

A thick shroud remains over these faceless hackers as none of those interviewed by Cyberlife admits to have ever met one face to face.

“The man who sells the codes to me buys it from some other person whom I suspect may be the hacker,” says one buyer who simply identified himself as Stephen, and had patronised these hackers on several occasions.

“I don’t know why nothing has been done about this as these guys are still out there selling the codes and making good money out of it,” he said.

To survive the stiff competition, many of the internet service providers, majority of whom are also telecom operators had reduced their charges for internet browsing on mobile phones to the barest minimum. Yet, these software professionals appear undeterred by this; its either free or no deal at all.

Despite the activities of the hackers, many of the ISPs still insist in publiced claims in advertising campaigns and on official websites that their servers are very secure.

Every now and then, angry customers besiege customer care lines of mobile telecom networks with bitter complaints of purchasing already used recharge cards even though the silver coatings that hid away the pin code had still been intact upon purchase. Eventually, some of these loyal customers are compensated, but the issue is usually quickly swept under the carpets to avoid exposure and embarrassment and no proper investigation is carried out.

There has been no open statements to warn off these intruders at least to make them know the organisation are aware of their pranks and are on the look out for them.

By Charles Mgbolu
www.vanguardngr.com

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NITDA goes tough on hardware vendors over hazardous e-devices

For hardware vendors in the Nigerian IT market, especially at the Computer Village Ikeja, it may not be business as usual very soon as the National information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA) has said that hazardous e-devices imported into the country would soon be banned, adding that guidelines on the provision of IT services in the country is underway.

The Director General of NITDA, Professor Cleopas Angaye who disclosed this to CyberLIFE during a recent visit to Lagos warned that Nigeria is not a dumping ground for all sorts of hazardous e-devices coming into the country, especially from China and other parts of European countries

Dumping of hazardous e-waste including PCs and mobile phones into the African markets, especially in Nigeria, where the demand is so high, Angaye said, has continued to be on the increase despite measures put in place by the regulatory authorities.

“We will ban certain hazardous e-devices coming into the country that can pose serious environmental and public health risks. Guideline for the provision of IT services in the country will soon come. “The regulatory guideline will come out about second quarter of the current financial year.

“We are serious about it. We need proper regulatory guideline in the IT industry. Before you open a cybercafe for instance, there will be regulation on that. There are so many fake IT firms in the country.

“There are so many hardware companies importing all kinds of products without adequate regulation. That has to stop now. We will sanitize the industry against fake and hazardous products,” Angaye said.

According to Angaye, activities of hardware vendors in the IT market, especially at the Computer Village Ikeja has to be monitored with proper regulations, warning that hardware vendors should stop importing e-devices that have expired. “Third world countries are the target e-waste products come from” he said.

Meanwhile, a sharp rise in the sale of consumer gadgets around the globe, according to a report from the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP). will pose serious environmental and public_health risks over the next 10 years unless action is taken to properly collect and recycle their materials, according to a report from the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP).

The products, the report said, range from computers, printers and mobile phones to music devices, electronic toys, and televisions.

Based on the data collected by the UNEP to date, the e_waste from discarded computers will rise 200 to 500 percent over the next 10 years in comparison with 2007 levels in countries such as China, India and South Africa. E_waste from cell phones is also projected to grow in China and India by seven and 18 times, respectively, during the same period.

With the ugly trend causing more harm than good as a result of environmental pollution and attendant health implication, the western economies, IT experts say, must take action to prevent e_waste being illegally exported and dumped in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and China, among others.

But given the economic implications of recycling of these products, the western nations, according to recent checks third world with Nigeria in the lead for final destination e-waste.

This trend which has remained unabated has continued to be a challenge to the regulatory agencies, especially, the Standard Organization of Nigeria, (SON) which my have been helpless in regulating the daily influx of these obsolete e_gadgets that have short life span.

Although there is Basel Convention prohibiting International waste transfer, many containers stuffed with used PCs and mobile phones, according to CyberLIFE investigations have been shipped to Nigeria as a result of the large market.

Further checks by Vanguard CyberLIFE revealed that these products enter Nigerian market without proper regulation thereby making the country a dumping ground for all sorts of e-devices.

With no proper regulation put in place, controlling e-waste may remain unabated unless the government comes out with effective e-waste management system

Just last week, a look at the Computer Village Ikeja where hardware and software are sold revealed that efforts of the Ministry of Environment to regulate these products may not have yielded the expected results.

Even though e-waste is a global issue, it seems Nigeria is a lose market without regulation, making it a dumping ground for hazardous e-gadgets

By Emeka Aginam
Source: www.Vanguardng.com

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Build Your Own PC

It is increasingly popular to build your own computer. In most cases, it saves money, and it guarantees you get what you want. It also assures you avoid proprietary designs many companies use to keep you coming to them for new parts. Best of all, having built the system yourself, you become very familiar with that system and with computers in general.

People from all walks of life today build their own PCs. Executives, engineers, students, housewives, they all do it today. But, at the same time, pre-built PCs have come down in price quite a bit. Today, one is left to wonder whether it is best to build a PC yourself or to simply buy one off the shelf. I’ll address that here.

If you are a real PC enthusiast, this question may be a non-issue. The answer may be as obvious as the color of the sky. This is predictable, of course. When one builds their own PC, they are able to not only understand their PC better because they built it, but they are able to choose each component that goes into their PC. There is really something to be said for choosing your own components, and I’ll go into that further below. There is also a certain sense of satisfaction with having built a PC. One spends a few hours (or less for those more familiar with the process) to put the thing together. Then comes the moment of truth when one hits the power switch for the first time. If it works on the first try, its beer time!

But, besides the joy of it, is it worth it? Is it a practical use of your time? Will it really save you money? The answer to that question today has become a bit gray. A few years ago, the answer was obvious. Pre-built PCs were typically built from OEM, cheap components. The performance was average to simply awful. The choice was obvious: If you wanted a decent PC, you better build it. Today, the line has blurred. Where many off-the-shelf PCs today still use cheaper components in an effort to save money, there are more pre-built PCs today which do use quality hardware and whose performance ranks up there with the best of them.

Let us look at some of the key areas of interest in this:

Component Selection

Most commercial PC buyers (except for the ones who build higher end models) do not make a big deal of which components they use. They will, of course, tell you the specs of the system, but often do not elaborate on the brands of the equipment they use. Most lower to average priced pre-built PCs use more or less generic hardware. It gets the job done, but what you get is what you get. Upgrading can be a problem for this reason. In contrast, building your own PC means you can handpick all components in your system. You can ensure you get good, name brand hardware which will have proper manufacturer support and driver support. Most importantly, you can ensure you get hardware that will perform. One aspect of pre-built is that compatibility issues are taken care of by the manufacturer, but there is a tradeoff made in that guarantee.

Price

In general, you can get more bang for your buck building your own PC. In many cases, you will find equally priced and comparable PCs, where one is pre-built and one would be homebuilt. You can buy PCs cheaper than you can build them, but when you consider the hardware choices within, the price is offset in favor of homebuilt. One thing to consider here is the value of your time. If you are a very busy person where time is money, then you most likely want to buy a pre-built PC. If you don’t mind taking the time, though, you can do better doing it yourself.

Support

Available support is a key concern for do-it-yourselfers. When you build it yourself, there is nowhere to take the PC for service. You can’t say “Here, make this work.” On the other hand, pre-built machines typically do come with manufacturer support. But, support is anything but consistent. Some manufacturers have questionable records on support whereas some are quite good at it. Having support for your PC is no guarantee of having a problem-free user experience, and it is certainly no guarantee that they will take responsibility for your PC if it doesn’t work. The good news for do-it-yourselfers is that the community of people who do this kind of thing themselves is increasing. There is a lot of data on the internet, and community sources for assistance. I’m compelled to mention our own forums where a community of thousands is available to help you out on your PC.

Warranty

On pre-built PCs, there is typically a warranty on the whole system, and in many instances, you are offered an extended service plan at the time of purchase. Home built PCs do not have full system warranties, of course, but if you buy good name brand hardware, most of the components will themselves have warranties. So, really, either way, you can be covered here.

Software

Pre-built PCs often come with much software on it, most importantly the operating system itself. The actual price of the software is pretty good, because manufacturers get great deals on this software because they buy in bulk. On the flip side, though, these PCs sometimes come with too much software, meaning garbage that you do not want and just clutters the hard drive and bugs you to buy stuff. It can be quite annoying. On homebuilt PCs, you might pay a little more for the software per unit, but you will get what you want and only what you want, plus you can set it up how you want.

In general, I’m a big fan of the homebuilt PC. I’ve never used a PC I didn’t build myself. I think its a huge money saver. In my case, I built it myself, and then as technology progressed, I incrementally upgraded the machine. This saves a lot of money in the long run, because with a pre-built commercial machine, once it goes out of date, you pretty much need to start anew with a new PC.

Source: http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/