IT-CRUISERS: Everything IT

It was a remarkable day for the future of cloud technology in Africa as Oracle launched the first cloud region (Cloud Data center) on African soil - In Johannesburg South Africa. This means users of cloud services especially within Africa can now be able to choose a location closer to them for hosting of their cloud resources and applications. Also regulatory requirements would be met such as the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). What is a cloud region/Data center? It is the actual, real-life geographic location where your public cloud resources are located, where your data resides physically. Some think of the cloud to be a hypothetical or intangible storage in the sky, but it is indeed a physical robust IT infrastructure consisting of server machines and high-speed network connectivity designed to provide secured access to a large number of users or subscribers. Currently, Oracle has about 39 cloud regions around the world. Google boasts of 29 regions, Amazon AWS 26 regions,

The World's most popular Social Media platforms - Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger went down for over 6 hours on October 4th 2021. These super Social Media platforms are owned by one company - Facebook and run on same infrastructure. Reports has it that this 6 hour long outage saw $7 billion wiped from Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth as users flocked to alternative platforms. Image Source: https://see.news/users-report-issues-with-facebook-instagram-whats-app/ I observed the downtime here in Nigeria from around 16:55 GMT+1 when I could neither send or receive messages on WhatApp. Also I observed my Facebook news feed was not getting refreshed with new content. At first I thought the problem was with my mobile telecom data service, but realized I could access other websites on the internet. On making further checks online I saw a report from an online real-time outage monitoring website DownDetector that Facebook was down! There were numerous reports as well that th

The Nigeria Apex bank - the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced plans to launch a digital currency called eNaira or Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) by October 1, 2021. The digital currency will be operated on the Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain which is an open source project that serves as a foundation for developing blockchain-based products, solutions and applications. It uses plug-and-play components that are aimed for use within private enterprises. Is CBDC similar to popular Cyrptos Such as Bitcoin? The answer is no, they are different in many ways: CBN can approve or override CBDC transactions since it is in control of the infrastructure, it a direct liability of the central bank and serves as the issuing authority. In contrast, crypto is private money with no central authority. The CBDC will be backed by law to become a legal tender, whereas the cryptos are not legal tender. Unlike cryptos that operate via blockchain networks in a decentralized way, a CBDC is a state

Following recent policy on integration of mobile lines with the National Identity Number (NIN), the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has ordered all Nigerians to link their National Identity Number (NIN) to their respective SIM cards or face termination of service from network providers. Image from  https://nimc.gov.ng/ Consequently, the major network providers in Nigeria (MTN, Glo, Airtel and 9mobile) has released easy and quick steps for subscribers to link their National Identity Number (NIN) to their mobile numbers, ranging from simple USSD codes to SMS and use of web portals. How Can I Retrieve My NIN? Simply dial *346# to retrieve your NIN number regardless of how long ago you did the registration with NIMC. I Do Not Have NIN, How Can I Register? Kindly walk into the any of the listed NIN enrollment centers closest to you – as listed on NIMC website https://nimc.gov.ng/nimc-enrolment-centres/ How to Link Your NIN to Your MTN Line   image from  https://www.mtnonline.com/ Th

Digital Skills are no longer only for graduates of IT, Computer science and relates courses. In today's world if you do not have any form of digital skill you'll be left at a permanent disadvantage in the near future! School vector created by pch.vector - www.freepik.com Virtually every job or task today is either fully done with computers and software applications or aided by it. Therefore, employers are looking for persons with one form of digital skill or the other. Even smaller businesses out there make use of some form of digital platforms for their trading. Examples of Digital Skills Few years it was all about being computer literate, that is the basics of digital skills. But today, in addition to being computer literate you will need some digital skills to be relevant like the following: 1. Social media marketing skills ( E.g. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter marketing) 2. Digital marketing skills  (E.g. Email marketing) 3. Digital content creation (Graphic - vid

Once again I bring to you online security tips; this time it is about the popularly used mobile messaging app  - WhatsApp.  Two-step verification ensures safety of the application and prevents intruders from taking over your account. Here are the steps to enable the two-step verification. Step 1: Open WhatsApp Settings. Step 2: Tap Account > Two-step verification. Step 3: Tap Enable. Step 4: Enter a six-digit PIN of your choice and confirm it. Step 5: Provide an email address you can access (Recommended) Step 6: Confirm the email address and tap Save or Done. You should see the final page as show below With this you have successfully enabled two-step verification on your WhatsApp account. Remember to keep your six-digit PIN safe and never disclose to anyone. Hackers can come by way of social engineering and trick you to release sensitive information like the six-digit PIN, beware of such. Thank you for reading and I hope you find this quite helpful. Stay safe!