GRTech
Sidmach displays innovative prowess at education summit in Lagos
The much publicised simplified, reliable, and affordable School Management solution suitable for every school, that allows schools keep track of information as it relates to academics- SmartSchool, has been unveiled.
The solution was developed by leading indigenous software company, Sidmach Technologies Nigeria Limited.
The cloud based solution was unveiled at the Digital Transformation in Education summit organised by Microsoft Nigeria in conjunction with Sidmach Technologies.
In a presentation, the Account Manager for Sidmach Technologies, Mr. Owhofasa Imoh, said this will assist in the management of various aspects of school operations, and was designed to manage the registration processes, examination processes, record keeping and collation of schools, amongst several other things.
SmartSchool functions in a flexible manner such that it caters for the needs of both primary and secondary school to improve services to students, staff, visitors, while parents can leverage the platform to ascertain the behaviour of their kids in school.
“With SmartSchool you go online and subscribe to a service and you give access to your users; primarily the teachers to keep track of activities in School such as student’s attendance, academic records, student’s behaviour and many other features imbedded in the solution.
“With our SmartSchool, schools will be able to manage school administration; teachers and student management; access NERDC curriculum and WAEC Chief Examiner report, imagine Academy Office and Certification.
“It is open to any school for adoption. However, as a subscription service, private schools can easily sign up. For public schools, I suspect they might be going through the government.
Mr. Imoh further told TechEconomy.ng that as an indigenous country, the subscription fees are payable in Naira.
“As a Nigerian user you make payment in Naira. However, if you are using a foreign online payment service it should be able to convert the payment to Naira.
Upon signing up an administrator grants access to whoever should have access to its usage. “As a proprietor- I sign up, make payment and gain access to the solution- I will begin to add users; who are my teachers. So, they receive an email to get their login or signup to perform their functions.
While emphasising on the need for schools to adopt technological tools like SmartSchools, the Education Program Manager at Microsoft Nigeria, Jordan Belmonte, said that Educationists have to keep in mind that technology is changing rapidly where the user now controls the real life impact.
“Whether we like it or not technology is here to stay. We are only required to think on how to leverage them to solve social problems like in education, water, issues in global health, conflicts/war, climate change, energy, amongst others as captured in the Social Development Goals.
“We need to ask questions like: are we teaching students the skills to go out there in the world and solve the existing problems? Or are we just churning out graduates who can’t fit in into the present workplace.
Speaking on why digital transformation in education is crucial she said the shift in standards moving from manufacturing to information economy where artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, cloud and other tools will be the order of the day, entails that schools can’t be the laggards.
“Think about marketing and how digital solutions have transformed the job; today, digital marketing is the skill every marketer needs to learn.
“Due to flexibility of skills today, statistics show that people are no longer interested in staying in same job for 30 years, rather they have 10 different skills before 40 years”.
Belmonte thus described digital transformation in education as a way to support the demand for robust essential life skills- critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication among the pupils.
She said that Microsoft will continue to partner with Sidmach towards creating more values for teachers; flexibility and creating the solutions that enable easy teaching and learning; better learning outcomes, saves teachers time, affordable easy to manage devices.
“Sidmach is a great company and has been doing a lot in the smartschool solution; we are happy to work with them”, she said.
Earlier, the Head of Sales and Marketing at Sidmach, Mr. Olayemi Olaleyon, said that the Company has been developing solutions in the education sector for close to three decades and has assisted the industry in transforming processes through digital tools.
For instance, in 1999, Sidmach helped WAEC to introduce Computer Based Testing; chief Examiner’s Report; Biometric e-Registration/ photo embossment on WAEC certificate.
“2012 in partnership with NERDC, we introduced e-curriculum; digitization of the National Curriculum. We help teachers to work smarter. So, over the years, we have worked with Microsoft to achieve these feats; Sidmach is Microsoft’s Gold Partner in Nigeria for over 15 years.
“Come to us with any ICT related challenge and we shall find a platform to solve it. Ours is to find a smarter way to transform what you are currently doing, digitally”, Olaleyon said.
The summit also featured a demo session on Sidmach’s newest solutions such as the Simple Electronic Assessment and Marking System (SEAMS).
According to the Creative Marketing Officer, Sidmach Technologies, Akintunde Opawole, the solution will enable schools and examination bodies enhance the conduct of examinations, marking of answer scripts and scoring of their various students.
He explained that SEAMS is a comprehensive solution that provides institutions with an automatic conversion of examination answer booklets or forms filled on paper to digital format in real time.
“It also allows candidates to take exams using their familiar pen and paper while converting it real time to electronic format.
“It provides easy and safe archiving of exams scripts. It saves cost, time and provides fast results,” he added.
According to him, this solution will convert exams scripts electronically in real time without the teachers having to input records manually.
Source: TechEconomy.ng
GRTech
Sophos Partners with Tenable to Launch New Sophos Managed Risk Service
. New Fully Managed Solution Provides Visibility, Risk Monitoring, Prioritization, Investigation, and Proactive Notification to Prevent Cyberattacks
April 4, 2024 – Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions that defeat cyberattacks, today announced a strategic partnership with Tenable, the Exposure Management company, to provide Sophos Managed Risk, a worldwide vulnerability and attack surface management service.
The new service features a dedicated Sophos team that leverages Tenable’s exposure management technology and collaborates with the security operations experts from Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR) to provide attack surface visibility, continuous risk monitoring, vulnerability prioritization, investigation, and proactive notification designed to prevent cyberattacks.
The modern attack surface has expanded beyond traditional on-premises IT boundaries, with organizations operating frequently unknown numbers of external and internet-facing assets that are unpatched or under protected, leaving them vulnerable to cyberattackers.
This is evident in the newest Sophos Active Adversary Report, also released, which identifies three tasks that organizations must prioritize to minimize the risk of brazen intrusions that lead to ransomware or other types of attacks.
These include closing exposed Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access, enabling multi-factor authorization and patching vulnerable servers, all of which were top entry points in breaches handled by Sophos Incident Response in 2023.
The Sophos Managed Risk service can assess an organization’s external attack surface, prioritize the riskiest exposures, such as open RDP, and provide tailored remediation guidance to help eliminate blind spots and stay ahead of potentially devastating attacks.
“Sophos and Tenable are two industry security leaders coming together to address urgent, pervasive security challenges that organizations continuously struggle to control. We can now help organizations identify and prioritize the remediation of vulnerabilities in external assets, devices and software that are often overlooked. It is critical that organizations manage these exposure risks, because unattended, they only lead to more costly and time-consuming issues and are often the root causes of significant breaches,” said Rob Harrison, senior vice president for endpoint and security operations product management at Sophos. “We know from Sophos’ worldwide survey data that 32% of ransomware attacks start with an unpatched vulnerability and that these attacks are the most expensive to remediate. The ideal security layers to prevent these issues include an active approach to improving security postures by minimizing the chances of a breach with Sophos Managed Risk, Sophos Endpoint, and 24×7 Sophos MDR coverage.”
“While the latest zero day may dominate the headlines, the biggest threat to organizations, by a large margin, is still known vulnerabilities – or vulnerabilities for which patches are readily available,” said Greg Goetz, vice president of global strategic partners and MSSP, Tenable. “A winning approach includes risk-based prioritization with context-driven analytics to proactively address exposures before they become a problem. Sophos Managed Risk, powered by the Tenable One Exposure Management Platform, delivers outsourced preventive risk management, enabling organizations to anticipate attacks and reduce cyber risk.”
Specific key benefits of Sophos Managed Risk include:
- External Attack Surface Management (EASM): Advanced identification and classification of internet-facing assets, such as web and email servers, web applications, and public-facing API endpoints
- Continuous monitoring and proactive notification of high-risk exposures: Proactive notification when a new critical vulnerability is identified in an organization’s internet-facing assets
- Vulnerability prioritization and identification of new risks: Swift detection of high-risk and zero-day vulnerabilities, followed by real-time notification to ensure critical internet-facing assets are promptly identified, investigated and responded to by order of importance
“One of the biggest challenges organizations face when improving their security posture is prioritizing what to handle first. This type of guidance helps solve that issue and reduces the workload for security teams tasked with tackling vulnerability and exposure management,” said Craig Robinson, research vice president of Security Services, IDC. “Solutions such as Sophos Managed Risk can be a differentiator by enabling overwhelmed teams to take a more holistic approach to continuous monitoring and threat management.”
Sophos Managed Risk is available as an extended service with Sophos MDR, which already protects more than 21,000 organizations globally. The Sophos Managed Risk team is Tenable-certified and works closely with Sophos MDR to share essential information about zero-days, known vulnerabilities and exposure risks to assess and investigate possibly exploited environments.
“Sophos Managed Risk simplifies the difficult and resource consuming task of identifying vulnerabilities, really understanding the extent of risk exposure, and prioritizing necessary remediations,” said Kieron Stone, cybersecurity business development manager at Phoenix Software Ltd. “As a trusted managed service provider (MSP), this is a service we’re proud to stand behind, and nearly all our customers using it have already discovered significant vulnerabilities that they were previously unaware of. For organizations that don’t already have a well-defined vulnerability patching cadence, this is a must-have service for the identification of vulnerabilities and building that schedule; and for organizations that are already managing vulnerabilities, it’s a second set of eyes for added peace of mind that they’re not missing anything.”
Organizations benefit through regular interaction, including scheduled meetings with Sophos experts to review recent discoveries, insights into the current threat landscape, and recommendations for remediation and prioritizing actions. Additionally, organizations can initiate inquiries via the Sophos Central platform, allowing users to directly engage with the Sophos Managed Risk team for tailored support, reports and to review their latest prioritized alerts.
“You can’t fix what you can’t see. Sophos Managed Risk is shining a light on areas of exposure that require remediation in order to keep customers protected. Combining Sophos’ elite MDR experts with Tenable’s industry-leading exposure management technology gives us a full picture view of vulnerabilities with the guidance we need to minimize risk,” said Brooks Roy, president at Communications Consulting, Inc. “The real value add for us as a channel partner is having the ability to easily manage Sophos Managed Risk’s prioritized alerts across our customer base on the Sophos Central dashboard.”
Sophos Managed Risk is available with a term license through Sophos’ global network of channel partners and Managed Service Providers (MSPs). A Sophos MSP Flex version will be available in 2024.
TechNews
inq.Digital Supports Payments Forum Nigeria [PAFON 1.0]
Inq. Digital Nigeria Limited has been announced as a sponsor of Payments Forum Nigeria [PAFON 1.0] maiden edition holding this Thursday in Lagos.
inq. Digital Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of inq. Group is an emerging leading digital and cloud solutions provider that delivers simpler seamless solutions to complex business challenges.
With offices in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano, inq. provides reliable and affordable Intelligent Connectivity, SDN/NFV, Cloud and Digital services (including Edge –AI) for Nigerian businesses including those in the payment space.
Participation is FREE, however, pre-registration is required: https://bit.ly/4c4N19H.
Speaking ahead of Payments Forum Nigeria [PAFON 1,0] scheduled to take place at Oriental Hotel, Lekki Road, Lagos on Thursday, March 21, 2024 by 9am under the theme: “Payments: Trust, Security and Privacy in AI Era”, Mr. Chike Onwuegbuchi, the co-founder of TechCastle Foundation, the organisers, said the goal is to enable information exchange and knowledge sharing on key industry insights issues amongst key stakeholders, with the objective of ensuring a collaborative and proactive approach to push for policies that enable growth, tackling/mitigating fraud and limiting occurrences and losses.
Speakers
The following speakers are lined up for the Forum: Chibuzo Efobi, Director, Payments System Management, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); Festus Amede, Chairman, Committee of Chief Information Security Officers of Nigerian Financial institutions (CCISONFI; Dr. Adewale Peter Obadare, Chief Visionary Officer (CVO), Digital Encode Limited; Adetokunbo Omotosho, Chief Executive Officer, Cybervergent; Roosevelt Elias, Founder, Payble; Ikenna Ndugbu, chief compliance officer, Moniepoint MFB, and Peter Evbota, Sales Director at inq. Digital Nigeria Limited.
Payments Forum Nigeria is organised by TechCastle Foundation and sponsored by: inq. Digital Nigeria Limited, Cybervergent, Moniepoint, Digital Encode Limited, Payble with support from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
GRTech
S Mobile Tech Hub Opens Registration to Entrepreneurs in Southeast
• 500 successful candidates to get starter-packs
• Rolls our Free Data, Airtime to Civil Servants, Students, others
S Mobile Tech Hub, an offspring of S Mobile Group has open applications to technology entrepreneurs in the Southeast Nigeria.
S Mobile Tech Hub was recently conceived by Mr. Kingsley Adonu, a visionary entrepreneur and CEO/Founder S Mobile Group, who aims to manifest the Group’s deliberate programmes towards building a dynamic and vibrant startup ecosystem in eastern region of the country.
APPLY by visiting www.smobilegroup.com to register.
Speaking against this backdrop, Mr. Adonu, said that even against tremendous challenges faced by the youth in the Southeast, they must be actively engaged in digital skills development in order to eschew social vices and make positive contributions towards maintaining peace and progress in the region.
“Unfortunately, a lot of our young people are facing numerous barriers to participating in formal and informal sectors today. In December 2015, the United Nations Security Council adopted UNSCR 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security. The resolution was the first to recognise the important role young people can play in preventing conflicts, and sustaining peace.
“It is on this premise and more that S Mobile is thinking out of the box by extending digital skills programmes to empower the youth to be more economically relevant. This will also go a long way in supporting the efforts of the Governors in the Southeast who are not resting on their oars until we have crime-free society with less poverty index.
“S Mobile Tech Hub has been positioned as a platform for entrepreneurs to leverage trends to accelerate their skills and innovation especially in the areas of artificial intelligence, robotics, big data, etc., which have become embedded in our daily lives.
“We are rolling out free data and airtime to civil servants, students, farmers and other entrepreneurs, for connecting with MTN Nigeria services.
Also during the cohort 1 of S Mobile Tech Hub programme 500 successful technology entrepreneurs across the Southeast region will be sponsored with the starter-tools to live their dreams.
“Together, let’s turn technology into your personal pathway to empowerment, growth, and societal well-being. Don’t just dream about a brighter tomorrow; let’s build it together today!”, the company said on Wednesday.
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