How Hackers use ignorance to their own Advantage at 9:09 AM

Who is to blame?! Hackers or Network Administrators/Engineers? 

If you leave your house door open or your keys on the door & thieves easily get into your house and steal all your valuable assets; who do you blame, the thieves or yourself? That's the question!

A few days ago i made a blog post about Cybersecurity in Botswana, stating how most Network Administrators are ignorant, leaving router passwords as default, putting internet users in grave danger! Today i am gonna show you how easy it is to gain access to a router with a default password in 20 seconds! Yep! its that easy folks!

Now if you have physical access to the router, good for you... but as hackers we somehow enjoy the thrill of attacking a network Wirelessly! Assuming that the Wireless network was left open (no WiFi password) or the hacker has already cracked the WiFi password...taking over this network would simply be a piece of cake! All the hacker has to do is simply open a Web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Opera) and go to the router login page using the router IP address: 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1 etc..depends on the type of the router. 

Usually on the router login page, the router model is always written somewhere. So in this case, you can see at the Top left corner of the 1st screenshot, that the model of this router is "DLINK DIR- 655"...easy! So since the hacker has the router model, what he has to do now is simply go to the Default Router Passwords website & start looking for DLINK DIR-655 default username & password and login to that router...see! its that easy! Once he has logged in to the router he can do pretty much anythin he wants; reboot the router, disconnect the internet, block some or all users from the network, sniff the network & grab all username & passwords etc. 


It takes around 4 minutes for the hacker to execute this attack...This not only poses a serious threat to companies but to home users as well...i would like to encourage Network engineers from Internet Service Providers (ISPs), to change router passwords for the safety of their customers. Follow this tutorial to check if you may be a victim, if you are...try to change the router password yourself (Google is there to help you). You never know, someone could be spying on you, and if you are buying stuff online with that credit of yours, don't be surprised if you lose all your money...Take these precautions seriously!

Cybersecurity begins with You - Be aware, Be Secure! 

Branding VS Religion at 12:34 PM

Try saying anything negative about a True Believer's Religion & you are in for a Big fight! The Truth is, people will do whatever it takes to protect/defend what they Believe in, whether its True or not. Its that simple!

Branding

When it comes to Business Success, we can really learn a lot from religion. What churches do is simply instill a Belief System in an individual, once that is done, everything will simply run on "Autopilot"...whatever the church asks for, members of the church (True Believers) will do whatever it takes to contribute whatever they have to get it done (e.g money, assets, more people etc). They will even invite more people to join the church, assuring them on how this church will change their lives. Eventually, we now have an army that will defend the church in whatever way possible! 

Now i am not trying to spark a heated argument on religion here & I am not saying you should stop believing in God; but i just want us to learn something here...something which we can apply in our companies. Lets take Apple for instance; try saying anything negative about Apple or an Apple product, to an "Apple-Addict" (Fan) & then see what happens...he or she will try by all means to justify how Great Apple products are. This Loyal Fan will go to the extent of buying almost all Apple products coz he believes in them (Quality, Class etc)...even if Apple happens to release a poor product (of which i don't think so---Yes i am Apple Addict as well...lol)...this customer will still buy it anyway! Catch my Drift?! In business, this is what we call...Brand Loyalty! 

Final Words

Well the point i am trying to drive across here is, if you are gonna Brand your company / Product.....do it in a way that it creates a Strong Belief System in your customers, become a Thought Leader in your area of Expertise...in other words...become a GOD in what you specialize in...and people will Follow you, they will worship you! Eventually you will now have True Believers a.k.a "Loyal customers". 

You are done with your part now....everything else will simply run on 'Auto-Pilot' from there....Your Loyal customers will invite more people to join your Religion & your become even more Successful.

In God we Trust...in Business we Pay!

What most African countries could learn from Estonia at 9:51 AM

Imagine waking up in the morning with a Great business idea...You pull out your laptop, register a new company and in about 15 minutes, your company is already up and running & you are already marketing your products/services to potential clients out there, receiving orders in a short span of time. You check out all your medical records from all your hospital visits, you check how your children are progressing at school in real-time without having to be physically there...the thought of venturing into Real-Estate pops into your mind, you immediately apply for a new plot & at the end of the month you are able to easily file your taxes right from your home, Online. Who wouldn't want to enjoy the convenience of this kinda lifestyle?! Yeah that's what i thought! This is a typical life in a Digital Society & its already happening in reality in Estonia.

          

Most people don't even know Estonia, but if you have been using "Skype" to make those Voice/Video calls, its high time you know that this is the country that invented Skype. It is one of the highly advanced countries in the world when it comes to Technology.


The Education System



In Estonia, parents are able to monitor the progress of their kids in school by simply logging into an online portal. On this portal they are able to check the weekly timetables, attendance, reports, assignments, teachers comments and can even get to know more about the teachers conducting the classes as well. If your child skips class for instance, you will be notified with an SMS in real-time; this makes it easier for parents to attend to the matter immediately. If your child has an assignment to do, you will be notified by SMS as well, which makes it easier for you to know & check if your child is actually doing all these assignments thoroughly. At school, students use Tablets, learning is done in a paperless environment, no need to carry all those heavy textbooks at all, all the study material is loaded on the Web-enabled Tablet. Assignments are submitted online, not on paper. 

We need to embrace the idea of introducing such a system here in Botswana  & most African countries & enhance our children's learning ability, getting parents involved in their child's learning progress at school.




         

Health System

Everyone in Estonia has a Biometric Identity card which they can use everywhere. When visiting the clinic or hospital, all you need is your ID....Doctors will attend to you & write Digital reports & prescriptions using the online portal & if you happen to run out of medication, you can get to the nearest pharmacy; the pharmacist will use your ID to access your medical records, checkout the medication prescribed Digitally by the Doctor online & give you the right medication. Its that simple! The system keeps logs of whoever checked out your medical records, this is great because it even enhances the patient's privacy, if anybody secretly checks out your medical record, the system will log this & they can be easily tracked down using the system logs and the necessary action shall be taken. This system could be quite handy in Africa, no need for long queues anymore, more patients can get help quickly in a completely paperless environment, and you can get to see all your medical records easily in one place (Online Portal).


           

 

Transport & Public Safety

You don't need to carry money around in Estonia, your Biometric ID is the answer to everything you need. When travelling with public transport, all you have to do is pull out your ID once you reach your destination, simply scan it on the Biometric reading device & the charge will be deducted from your bank account instantly. The same applies to shopping as well. Even if you get mugged, thieves wont get a penny coz you don't carry any cash on you at all, all you have to do is report this matter immediately to the police & they will take care of the rest. The police are always connected, they have systems that are up-to-date, in their cars & if they see anything suspicious, they will stop and check the criminal records of anyone or any vehicle they suspect on their system in real-time. This kind of approach enhances public safety.


Department of Lands & Housing

instead of having a stampede all the time like here in Botswana when it comes to land allocation, why cant we have a system in place that could ease this process?! Applying for land in Estonia is simply done online, the allocation process is done electronically, there is no need to stand in long queues all day. All you need to do is simply connect to the internet, fill out the online form, verify your identity using your Biometric ID, a verification code will be sent to your phone (Mobile ID), verify the code & submit it online. That's it! 

One more thing in Botswana is the tedious process of having to renew your ID/Omang, you always have to go to that office to check if its ready, why cant you check the status of your ID online, if its ready then you know that you are not gonna waste your time going over there! 


Business 


Instead of having to wait for so many days to register your company, it only takes 15 minutes to register a business/company in Estonia & your business could be up & running instantly. You can even sign business documents Digitally using your Smartphone/Tablet or Laptop/PC. Paying for taxes is a breeze, you simply file them online from the comfort of your own home or office, avoiding those long queues. It has been found that more people are now paying for their taxes in Estonia, all because of the convenience of this system.

    



 
Voting 

Voting in done electronically in Estonia, all you have to do is login to the online portal using your ID & phone to verify your identity, go to the voting section, browse through the available candidates, select your best candidate and vote for him or her. its that simple! you can vote as many times as you want but the system will only register your last vote. Imagine the hectic process of having to prepare for millions of people to vote, using the traditional system?! that's a headache! how about a Billion people? yeah that's even worse!




 
CyberSecurity

Implementing such an Ecosystem raises issues of Cyber attacks....if we are gonna have a system like this in place, we gonna have to have a team of highly skilled & experienced Cyber Security researchers in both Penetrating Testing & Computer Forensics. Penetration Testers or Ethical Hackers will constantly try to attack this system & file reports on any vulnerabilities or loopholes they found in the system; The Forensics team will take a closer look at these reports & implement better ways to secure the system to avoid any intrusion by malicious hackers. An Incident Response Team will have to be put in place to catch these bad guys in a jiffy.

However...looking on the brighter side of things....this entire Ecosystem can bring some Great benefits to most African countries & even improve the economy as well. 

Convenience at its Best! 

Are we taking Cyber Security for granted? at 11:57 AM

The Simplistic Truth is...You cant protect what you don't Value! 

If you have some valuable assets in your house for example....you will do whatever it takes to make sure that your house is secure! Electric fence, alarm system, Surveillance cameras and the like....but if you don't have anything of value in your house....you wouldn't really care much about implementing such security measures. At the end of the day, what will you be protecting anyway because you don't have anything of value to lose!

Current situation in Botswana

As a Cyber Security researcher, i did a bit of probing a few months ago just to see how secure we are as a country in terms of Cyber threats...what i found out is really embarrassing! I found out that most local companies leave their Wireless networks "Open"...all an intruder needs to do is simply click connect & he is in! Some companies have set up WiFi passwords but use weak encryptions like WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), which can be cracked in less than 3 minutes, instead of using WPA/WPA2 (WiFi Protected Access) which is a bit more difficult to crack.

The ignorance of some Network Administrators

Another dangerous observation i have made is that, Network Administrators of such companies don't even care to set passwords for these routers used to broadcast WiFi; this makes it easy for a malicious hacker to easily take over the company's router(s). It also becomes easier for him to sniff or steal critical company data from all the machines connected to that network, if he wants....he can disconnect all the machines connected to that WiFi Access point, including those connected by cable (ethernet cable) & literally put the business operations of that company to a complete "Pause"!

Vulnerable Websites


Another worrying issue is the security of our local websites. Recently the Mmegi website was hacked twice in a short span of time, a website of some Law firm was hacked as well. Even the Parliament website was hacked last year & nobody noticed a thing! What does this say about us? I have realized that what most companies do if they need a website, is simply go to a Web Designer/Developer who doesn't understand a thing about Cyber Security & ask him to design the website for them, once its done, they immediately put it online. They wouldn't go to a Certified Penetration Tester, to test the security of this website after its done before it goes online! Now you cant help but ask yourself..."Do we really value the critical information/Data of our clients or is this complete  ignorance?"

                                                 

Something definitely needs to be done because chaos is coming...very very soon!


Cyber Security Awareness!


As we slowly adopt the use of technology in Botswana, more money is going to be stolen online, serious identity theft issues will arise, our kids will face the risk of being abducted since they share so much info (pictures, GPS location info etc) on Social Media, Cyber bullying & Cyber Stalking will be on the rise...more serious & mysterious crimes are going to be committed & we wouldn't know how to solve these.


A New Beginning!


I would like to encourage Local companies to start educating their employees about Cyber Security, because even if they think they have secured everything, the human factor always poses a Bigger threat to the company! Hackers can still use their Social engineering skills to trick employees into giving away critical company data & these employees themselves wouldn't notice a thing!

Password Security is another thing...instead of letting your employees write down their passwords on those sticky notes & actually sticking them on their screens for everyone to easily login to their machines.....Teach them how that poses a serious threat to the company or outsource Cyber Security Services from us & let us do what we do Best! You don't necessarily have to wait for the government to do this for you....

It all begins with you & how much you value what you have....Assets, Critical Company data & Customer data. 

Cyber Security begins with You! Secure Your most Valuable Assets!

Is Botswana ready for Ecommerce? at 11:00 AM

How many of you have credit cards? Yeah thats what i thought! Its only a select few who have them! 
How many of you have normal bank cards (VISA)? Yeah i know, most of you do, but the question is can you buy stuff online with those? NO! 

You can only buy stuff online only if you have a CREDIT CARD....try buying online on eBay with that VISA card, it wont work! Try registering it on Paypal, it wont work! but why? See...here is the trick which most people cant seem to notice...most of the local banks have intentionally disabled this feature on these normal bank cards so you are left with no other option but to apply for a credit card...having a credit card has Pros & Cons...yes you can enjoy the money as much as you like but this puts you in a perpetual state of Debt....and that's what the banks really want! Now i don't wanna ruin the Banking business here, all i am saying is...they need to loosen up all these restrictions to allow people with normal bank cards (VISA) to easily buy stuff online, opening a door to a plethora of opportunities for all Batswana.  

The benefits of Ecommerce to the Consumer

Introducing Ecommerce in Botswana would benefit the local consumers in the following ways:

• They will now have a wider range of products to choose from
• They can purchase Products or Services from Remote Areas using any Web-enabled Device (Smartphone, Tablet, Laptop/PC)
• Ecommerce gives greater control to the consumer, providing easy to use ordering systems that allow customers to choose products according to their Personal & Unique specifications.
• Consumers can easily compare prices from different online stores
• Save Time & Energy
• And mostly importantly they can enjoy the convenience of buying stuff from wherever they are & having it delivered to their doorstep in a jiffy!

The benefits of Ecommerce  to the Local Businesses

Ecommerce will highly benefit all Local Businesses / Companies in so many ways. Almost any local business will thrive! 

They will have:

• Increased Sales
• An increase in Customers, as well as potential customers country-wide & Globally
• The ability to Open 24/7, which means they can still make more money even when they are sleeping
• Instant processing of Transations, all transactions will be processed automatically without the Business owner's intervention
• An increase in Business reach 
• An ease of collecting recurring Payments

All this will only happen only if the local banks agree to come on board, if they don't...we gonna have come up with some that could kickstart this, Virtual Credit Cards for example.

Enjoy & feel free to share your thoughts! 

Has IT lost Value in Botswana? at 8:35 AM

What seemed to be a scarce skill a few years back is now in abundance as i speak! Highly qualified IT graduates are roaming the streets, hunting for jobs, most are sitting at home on knowledge that could be saving the country's unemployment crisis! Since the government introduced the Internship Programme, all the professions have somehow lost value, because companies now have an opportunity of saving millions through Free Labour! They pick a highly qualified graduate and exploit him for free for the next 2 years, after 2 years they pick another & another. When is this going to Stop? Its a horrible infinite loop that is killing the economy of this country!


Is the Government doing enough?

Is the government doing enough to spark innovation in this country? Is Botswana Innovation Hub doing enough to educate the public about the benefits of Technology & Innovation? NO! i don't think so!

If Botswana Innovation Hub was doing enough, Innovators would be highly appreciated in this country, IT graduates would not be sitting home doing nothing but could be joining forces somewhere at the BIH premises, developing Web & Mobile Applications that could create jobs for millions of unemployed individuals in our country! Talk about the next eBay, Paypal, better Health Systems, Cyber Security Solutions & more! But that is not happening at all, and you cant help but ask yourself Why? 

When you walk into the BIH premises, you don't see anything Innovative there, the theme of their environment is just boring! You rarely hear about them on radio or even see them on TV, all you get to see are just useless competitions on the newspaper! There is no point in winning these competitions because you are still going to try to sell your Innovative Product / Service to an audience that doesn't clearly understand the Value of it at all!

Whats in it for you? 

The simplistic truth is, people can never see the need to buy or do something until they know how Valuable it could be to them. You can only see the value of Cyber Security if you buy stuff online, have money in the bank or in possession of critical company data, you have to get tired of travelling long distances to buy stuff in order to see the value of the Time & energy you can save by simply picking up your Web-enabled device, buy it online & have it delivered to your house in a jiffy! Instead of travelling all the way from Kasane to buy stuff in town, you can simply pick your Smartphone, buy it online & have delivered to your doorstep! Catch my drift?! What BIH & the Government at large should be doing, is educating the public about the Value of Technology & Innovation, not just talking but showing us results. Creating platforms & paving the way for innovations to execute smoothly, locally. Speaking of Ecommerce, they could be educating the public about the convenience of buying online as well as the security risks involved & countermeasures, and then inviting banks to come on-board to help pave the way for the public to buy stuff online easily & most importantly, securely! 

The Power of Innovation!

We need to embrace & encourage innovation & Entrepreneurship, I am a Proud Innovator Myself, like they say, "Be the Change you want to see in the World!"....as a concerned citizen, i felt the need to write this article to spark a Brain out there, attract more concerned IT professionals & Voice out to the government as One! 

Dependency is a disease, Independence is the Cure...Change can only happen if we all join forces & Voice out as One!  You cant do it Alone!

"Give a Man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a Man to fish and you feed him for a Lifetime."

Innovation is the Future! 

Control Your Media Apps using Gestures! at 10:35 PM

Sometimes, you just don't want to touch a keyboard or mouse, well there is an App for that...'ControlAir'.

ControlAir is a Mac App that uses the Mac's camera to read finger-based movements, allowing users to control various media applications without needing to physically interact with their computers. . It works with iTunes, Spotify, Rdio, Netflix, Quicktime, VLC, and Vox. 

To use it, simply raise your finger, then move it left or right to select the volume buttons, play/pause buttons, or previous/next buttons. When you're on the one you want, "air click it" to select it...It's a little silly but quite fun to play around with, it works surprisingly well, as long as you're within about five feet of your Mac's camera.

If you are a Windows user, you can try out a similar Application called Flutter, which enables you to control your Media Applications using gestures as well. Check out the video below to see ControlAir in action:

And here is Flutter in action: 

You can download ControlAir for free from the Mac App Store here. 

#Enjoy Folks

Let's raise our Kids to be Entrepreneurs! at 7:44 AM

It seems our society here in Botswana is geared towards going to school, getting good grades & getting a good job! How about Entrepreneurship? Nowhere in our school curriculum do you find anything on Entrepreneurship! This poses a serious danger to our society because what we only learn at school is Dependency, getting good grades & relying on somebody else to give us a job, instead of creating the jobs Ourselves!

Our kids show signs of Entrepreneurship at an early age, yet we ignore all these signs & force them to fit to our society. Get Good Grades & Get a Good Job! 
That was Great back then, but not now! Things have changed, we now have an abundance of highly qualified graduates roaming around the streets, sitting on their Talents, not having any idea of what to do with their lives because there are no jobs available anymore!

Employees VS Entrepreneurs

Its high time we teach our kids to become Entrepreneurs, so they become independent, creating jobs using all these skills they have acquired in school. Instead of waiting for someone else to give them a job, they should be thinking about how they can sell their own skills & knowledge, starting their own businesses or even selling their own skills online. 

We cannot all become Employees & at the same time, we cannot all become Entrepreneurs! If we all become Entrepreneurs, who is going to buy our products/services? if we all become Employees, who is going to create more jobs? This is a system that is more like a See-Saw & it has to be balanced for a country to create a sustainable economy!

The benefits of the Digital Age

We are already living in the Digital Age, anything we want to learn is already there on the internet. All we need to do is learn how to search the internet, Master the Art of narrowing down our searches to exactly what we want. Anything is possible nowadays, whatever you want to learn, there is a video tutorial of it somewhere on YouTube, there is even  a course/tutorial on it on Udemy etc. Kids are curious little beings, lets teach them how to search the internet so they can explore their own curiosity quite easily, that way we will be able to pinpoint their interests, determine if they wanna be Entrepreneurs or not & channel them to the right path in line with their Passion. Lets introduce technology & innovation in primary schools, nourish them to become who they truly want to be when they grow up!

With Technology in place, the possibilities are endless!

The World has changed, so should we.

WhatsApp Web Tutorial at 3:48 PM

About a few days ago, WhatsApp rolled out a Web based version of WhatsApp which is quite is convenient for some of us who enjoy typing at light speed on our keyboards...lol...

Well the procedure to use this Web based version is quite simple...all you have to do is download the latest version of WhatsApp and browse to http://web.whatsapp.com. This feature is currently available for Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, and Nokia S60. Unfortunately its not available for iOS users as of yet?!
Dont worry much Folks!

Bear in mind that it doesn't work all on its own, your phone has to be connected for it to work & the idea is for all the conversations to be held on a  Web interface. At the moment it only works with Chrome browser! i strongly believe it will support other browsers very soon.

Launch WhatsApp on your Smartphone, Tap the more button and select the "WhatsApp Web" option. Scan the QR code on the WhatsApp web interface from the mobile app to sign in on your desktop.

Once the code has been scanned, you will be signed in to the service and all conversations on your phone will be synced to your browser (including notifications). You can send files by clicking on the attachment icon at the top right of a conversation thread.

You can click the icon with 3 dots at the top for more options (Profile & Status, Notifications, Help & Logout). 

Its that easy Folks! 

Enjoy & stay tuned for more cool posts....Chao! 

Check Username Availability On Any Social Network! at 8:31 AM

Usernames are turning into a sort of depleting resource and you often have to sit through several sign up attempts or struggle for up to thirty minutes until you find a username that is available when you sign up to one of the more popular services.

Well that is about to change....meet 'NameChk', a simple web app that lets you check username availability on dozens of social networks from one place. This Web App could be quite handy especially if you’re trying to maintain the same username on multiple Sites/Social networks.

There is even an iOS App which you can download from here. If the username is available, all you gotta do is click on the result & you will be redirected to the Sign Up Page! Its that simple Folks!

Check out NameChk here.