China’s growing technological expertise along its digital silk road is expected to set benchmarks for the rest of the world to follow, according to analysts. President of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) started down the digital silk road long before the rest of the world began talking about connected smart cities and technology-driven solutions.

As China continues to expand its digital footprint in sectors as diverse as cloud computing, 5G, surveillance technology and virtual currency, observers see movement in some areas toward Chinese technological dominance.

China is already leading the world in Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain, 5G, and quantum technology publications and patents. Data fuels AI development and, thanks to its sprawling surveillance apparatus, China has access to immense amounts of it, so China seems well-positioned to emerge as a leader in this field.

China has already launched the biggest blockchain ecosystem in the world, connected to over 100 city nodes, and was the first country to launch widespread pilots of a digital fiat currency – the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) system. Analysts agree that China has achieved enormous breakthroughs in some future technologies. Advancements in technologies allow China to more efficiently promote the progress of BRI, increase the bonding between China and BRI countries, and push BRI’s hard projects.

How technology will be incorporated into BRI projects will depend very much on the nature of the projects. This will differ among regions and countries.

– Research Associate, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore

China’s world-leading fibre optic industry, which is already assisting BRI countries in transforming from traditional to renewable energy supplies. Many countries aligned with BRI are rich in solar energy resources, but “lack the technologies and resources to construct renewable energy infrastructure. Through BRI, China can export advanced renewable energy technologies to BRI countries and Chinese fibre optic enterprises can enjoy local preferential policies, including tax incentives, preferential treatment for equipment imports.

In some infrastructure areas, such as high-speed railway, 5G networks, and ultra-high voltage power grids, China’s standards have become the international standards as everyone else plays catch-up. Therefore, through collaborating with Chinese enterprises, BRI partner countries can adopt the technologies that accord with the most advanced standards in their infrastructure projects.

China’s technological prowess gives it an edge to push BRI’s hard projects, such as renewable energy, transportation, infrastructure, power, and healthcare since in today’s technology-driven world, the digital realm is intimately intertwined with hard infrastructure.

Railways, ports, and electricity grids, for instance, would not be able to operate effectively today without software, sensors, and cybersecurity. China also provides a useful reference for BRI countries with its digital transformation and industrial digitalisation models. Most BRI countries are developing countries and have limited experience in dealing with digital technology but can benefit from China’s digitalisation experiences.

Given that the BRI is primarily a financing/investment mechanism, exporting technology adds a different dimension to the entire BRI assistance package. Most BRI projects have already been dependent on using Chinese equipment and labour, so any kind of tech advancement might just mean higher quality or more efficient projects.

Anything digital will tend to also require a larger investment amount, and“the financial capacity of BRI recipient markets will come into question here as well, especially if these markets are prioritising developing adequate infrastructure to meet their domestic needs first. The best way for BRI partner countries to benefit from China’s technological prowess is to partner with Chinese operators.

While the West has focused too much on profits and not enough on cash flow business and service lines, China is developing technologies to hook their services into supply chains to generate cash flow streams. This business model is relatively more sustainable than the profit-oriented ones.

Source: opengovasia

This role has a work from home option and candidate must be able to attend meetings on site as requested.

The Cyber Security Development Operations & Orchestration manager is responsible for supporting critical cyber security functions by orchestrating and automating alerts and processes, engaging in the use case development process, and managing cyber security technologies. This position is highly technical and requires a solutions-oriented person with a “can do attitude”.

Our ideal candidate will have the following:

• Experience administering security technology including: IDS/IPS and other network security tools, Anti-Virus / Anti-Malware, Endpoint intelligence tools, SIEM, Proxy, Forensic tools, DNS, Web Application Firewalls WAF, and Vulnerability Management tools.
• Certifications such as Splunk “power user” or above, CCNA or above, MCSA (Azure Security Engineer associate, Microsoft 365 Certified Security Administrator Associate, or other Microsoft Certifications), Linux certifications, CEH, GCIH, Python certifications.
• Ability to use programming languages such as Python, and PowerShell to automate processes, build APIs and enrich Incident Response alerts.
• Splunk skills including Dashboarding, Data Modeling, CIM compliance, and using SPL to write advanced searches.
• Knowledge of operating systems (Windows and Linux)
• Ability to provide cyber security support by planning, coordinating, integrating and synchronizing cyber defense and prevention activities, ensuring compliance with all applicable state and federal cyber laws and regulations
• Ability to Write Report to communicate Sutter Health’s risk profile impact to peers and management
• Knowledge of cyber security solutions, policies and technologies
• Knowledge of the lifecycle of a network threat and network vulnerability exploitation in a healthcare environment, including the anatomy of a cyber-attack
• Ability to use Internet Technologies including DNS, routing, SMTP, HTTP, DHCP, FTP, etc.
• Experience managing a highly technical team

Position Overview:
As a Cyber Security Manager, you will provide support and guidance to Sutter Health regions and affiliates to develop, implement, operate and manage the Cyber Security program and team. You will represent the Privacy & Information Security Department on project teams and initiatives and work with operations support teams to identify and recommend solutions on security-related issues. You will use your exceptional leadership skills to provide oversight over a broad range of security duties that require a high level of technical understanding. Additionally, you will be accountable to:

Manage the Cyber Security team and ensure Sutter Health is in compliance with information security and privacy laws
Oversee design, engineering, analysis, research, testing and monitoring
Assist in the development, implementation, and maintenance of Cyber Security solutions
Conduct investigations of potential or actual cyber security events and documents, and communicate the risks to executive leadership
Collaborate with Privacy & Information Security staff regarding the development and maintenance of Sutter Health’s Cyber Security program and policies
Serve as Cyber Security Manager and advisor to the Chief Privacy & Information Security Officer, the Executive Director of Cyber Security & Investigations and Sutter Health affiliates

You will work with all levels of staff and leadership and therefore must be able to interact effectively with broad and diverse groups. You should be well organized and be able to prioritize assigned work and convey complex technical topics into language and diagrams understandable to a wide audience.

Qualifications:
Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Science or related field or equivalent education/experience
Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) required within 4 months of date of hire
10 or more years of experience as an IT Security professional with progressively responsible management duties in security solutions and compliance reporting
Proven technical background in systems and network security
Extensive experience with security software, incident response, disaster recovery, firewalls, and network monitoring
Proven experience managing and tracking large scale projects and coordinating/planning resource allocations while tracking commitments to insure on-time delivery
Demonstrated professional experience working with PCI, SOX and HIPAA compliance regulations and applying them to security monitoring and alerting practices
Proven experience working with STIX/TAXXI based Threat Monitoring and Intelligence integration with SIEM solutions
Significant experience engineering High Availability infrastructure solution designs

Preferred Qualifications:
Healthcare information technology industry experience

Source: ziprecruiter

Vibrant digital identity and cyber security backbones have been identified as critical factors to drive the emerging payment technology economy in Nigeria, experts have said.

This was the summation of discussions by stakeholders in Nigeria’s finance and identity sectors, at the just concluded Future of Payment Conference held in Lagos.

Speaking on the theme, ‘Fear and Fraud: Juggling Identity, Consent and Security in the Age of Instant Payment’, Co-founder/CEO, VerifyMe Nigeria, Esigie Aguele, said building a sustainable trust-based economy powered by a virile digital identity infrastructure will accelerate gains from the shift towards cashless and contactless payment options.

He said: “What we are seeing increasingly in the identity space is that having robust identity protocols not only enable, but also secure payment. For instance, Amazon, the global e-commerce giant, now requests for the National Identity Number (NIN) before importing goods to customers in Nigeria. So, they are using identity to process payments and we are expecting to see trends like facial recognition increasingly play a leading role in the new era of PayTech.

“The ecosystem is also expanding beyond individual identity to device identity verification. The whole concept of SIM swap is one of the areas that cause online fraud and big loss to FinTech and telcos across industry. VerifyMe is going to be at the critical layer of supporting FinTech companies to minimize fraud across PayTech transactions as well as minimize leakages from exposing data to people who shouldn’t have access to it.”

Director, Account Management, West Africa, MasterCard, Stanley Jacob, stressed the need for increased attention to digital identity given the accelerated shift from physical and traditional payment systems to contactless pay technologies.

According to him, “Insights from MasterCard’s New Payment Index Survey show a growing acceptance of the new payment platforms whether they be biometric, contactless, QR or virtual currency. Seven out of every 10 respondents said they are ready and happy to use contactless payment platforms; 73 per cent are willing to use digital wallets by 2022 and; between 2020 and 2021, about 1 billion additional MasterCard transactions were processed through contactless platforms.

“These indices point towards the proliferation of PayTech. Therefore, there needs to be a corresponding infrastructure to harness this opportunity and preserve the integrity of the transactions. This is where digital identity and cybersecurity will come into play.”

Source: guardian

Shipowners’ organisation Bimco has urged Nigeria to step up efforts to safeguard seafarers as more and more crew are kidnapped from vessels in the Gulf of Guinea. The plea from the Danish-headquartered body came as the Joint War Committee (JWC) of the Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA) redrew the listed extended risk area in the West Africa region.

Having covered only the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of Togo, Benin and Nigeria north of latitude 3 degrees north since 2013, the update now includes areas further to the south and east between Lome in Togo and Cape Lopez in Gabon.

TradeWinds News spoke to Dryad Global’s team about the uptick in piracy incidents off West Africa as part of their research.

Analyst Munro Anderson, of security consultancy Dryad Global, told TradeWinds that some incidents are related to “criminal disputes and inter-syndicate activity. However, the evidence suggests this number is small,” he said.

“In addition, we see the increasing prevalence of incidents beyond the traditional heartlands of the Nigerian EEZ as being indicative of a growing trend of insecurity.”

Premiums also increasing

Chris Goddard, CEO, founder and underwriter of marine war risks at Vessel Protect, said additional premiums have increased in 2020 due to a proliferation of piracy in West Africa in both the marine war and kidnap and ransom market.

“The expansion of the Gulf of Guinea notification area is in direct response to the broadening of sustained attacks in the region which began increasing in 2019. The JWC’s decision will increase costs for shipowners operating in the region,” he added.

“However, those who widely adopt best management practice (BMP) and engage in risk mitigation measures such as transit risk assessments conducted by independent maritime security experts will continue to see preferable insurance terms over their peers.”

Source: channel16.dryadglobal