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The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has received dozens of  reports of vandalism of communications infrastructure across the country, noting that as the riots rage on, 113 towers have been damaged, and many community radio stations have been looted.

“Such wanton destruction of the broadcasting infrastructure and facilities represents a direct attack on the constitutional right of individuals and communities to access news and information that is accurate, unbiased and up-to-date about the current crisis,” ICASA said in a statement.

US-based American Tower Corporation (ATC) and SBA Communications’ (SBA) structures are potential targets for arsonists and ICASA Chairman Keabetswe Modimoeng warned that “Any disruption of communication services could prove disastrous and result in increased mortality as emergency calls may be directly impacted.”

He said he expects the number of towers that have been vandalized to increase as the country tries to stop the growing number of looters and arsonists.

“We call on the communities to assist in guarding and protecting this critical infrastructure and to exercise the highest levels of patriotism in this regard,” said Modimoeng.

South Africa has approximately 26,000 towers, with ATC owning about 2,300 towers, according to its website.

SBA has approximately 1,200 sites, the majority of which were acquired in October 2019, with the purchase of 900 sites from Atlas Tower South Africa that had a substantial backlog of new builds.

“It is catastrophic sprees of unrest such as the one ongoing that developing countries struggle to ever recover from, with damaged infrastructure simply left as is without funds or manpower available for repairs,” ICASA said.

The country’s three major towercos are Vodacom, Gyro Group and MTN Group.

MTN is seeking to sell its towers and the company has received requests from 20 towercos and investment firms to provide a leaseback offer. MTN said it is looking to conclude the sale during the third quarter of 2021.

It is not known if the current unrest in the country will lower the estimated $500 to $700 million for the company’s towers, understood to total about 6,000.

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13 July 2021

Pretoria – The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA/the Authority) unreservedly condemns the ongoing acts of violence, looting and arson currently taking place in the country, which have resulted in the disruption of communication services, closure of some community radio stations and vandalism of network facilities.

The affected community radio stations, whose equipment has been reported damaged or looted, include Alex FM, Ntokozo FM, Mams FM and Westside FM, to name but a few.

The Authority has further received reports of vandalism of communications infrastructure, including 113 network towers in some parts of the country. Such wanton destruction of the broadcasting infrastructure and facilities represents a direct attack on the constitutional right of individuals and communities to access news and information that is accurate, unbiased and up-to-date about the current crisis. The Authority accordingly condemns such criminal behaviour in the strongest of terms.

“We call on the communities to assist in guarding and protecting this critical infrastructure, and to exercise the highest levels of patriotism in this regard. Any disruption of communication services could prove disastrous and result in increased mortality as emergency calls may be directly impacted,” says ICASA Chairperson, Dr Keabetswe Modimoeng.

Dr Modimoeng further states that ICASA has written to the National Joints Operations and Intelligence Services (NatJoints) to prioritise the safeguarding and protection of this critical telecommunications infrastructure.

In the Cape Town Regional Court last year, a man charged with theft and vandalism of the telecommunications infrastructure was found guilty of 25 counts of theft and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for each of the 25 counts, collectively amounting to 500 years of direct imprisonment. “The judgement is a clear indication that the impact of battery theft and site vandalism is of a treasonous nature,” says Dr Modimoeng.

The Authority, through its Regional Offices in all nine (9) Provinces, will continue to closely monitor the situation during this volatile period.

The post ICASA URGES COMMUNITIES TO SAFEGUARD THE COMMUNICATION INFRASTRUCTURE AGAINST VANDALISM appeared first on EMFSA.

Abstract

This introductory chapter sheds light on the opportunities and challenges that the digital era has in store for the European Union (EU) at a time when its fundamental values are being called into question by prominent political currents. The chapter sets the scene by an account of how previous periods of technological transformation affected European societies and considers the financial and regulatory resources at the disposal of the EU to manage the technological shift of the 2020s. The chapter introduces the book’s interdisciplinary approach, which offers various disciplinary perspectives on how the technological mega-shift impacts the EU’s ability to meet the multifaceted challenges it is facing. The chapter concludes that decision-makers at the national as well as European levels must be prepared to take a holistic perspective when addressing technological trends and seeking solutions to the problems that arise in the wake of changing economic and political conditions in society.

Excerpt

The starting point in the book’s first chapter, authored by Lindy M. Newlove-Eriksson and Johan Eriksson, is that the world in the early 2020s is undergoing a technological ‘mega-shift’. This involves a digital interweaving of several different processes, technical systems, infrastructures, organisations and societal functions, and, in some respects, the human body as well. The authors describe how critical infrastructure, artificial intelligence and ‘smart’ homes and cities are becoming increasingly intertwined—not least by way of the new 5G technology—with consequences for security and vulnerability which to a great extent are unexamined. The chapter analyses what this mega-shift means for the EU. Newlove-Eriksson and Eriksson contend that the challenges facing the EU are significant, especially when it comes to maintaining a strategic overview and ensuring responsibility. The EU scarcely lacks, the authors aver, strategies for responding to the technological shift, but its lines of responsibility are unclear. Furthermore, the EU has a tradition of engaging several parallel expert and strategy groups on various technological issues, leading to a lack of coordination.

The authors also describe the EU’s behaviour as stamped by a fundamentally techno-optimistic perspective. This has two unfortunate effects: first, issues of security and vulnerability often fail to attract sufficient attention; and second, conflicts between different interests around technological development are not taken into account. The chapter then reviews three different perspectives on technology and societal change: a techno-optimistic perspective, a pessimistic perspective and a newer perspective that takes into account the complexity and interweaving of technological development and societal change. In the four subsequent sections, the authors analyse more specific challenges that the technological mega-shift poses for the EU’s security: antagonistic threats: the surveillance society; vulnerability and uncontrollability; and private-public organisation and accountability. The authors’ purpose here is to illustrate the wide range of problems associated with security and vulnerability which arise from the mega-shift. Newlove-Eriksson and Eriksson conclude with four recommendations on how, in light of the conclusions of their chapter, the EU can handle the mega-shift: the EU should take a holistic perspective on the mega-shift; it must develop clear lines of responsibility for interwoven systems; it should forswear any deterministic outlook; and it must stop the outsourcing of security-classified activities.

https://europepmc.org/article/pmc/pmc7978693

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VIDAR is capable of capturing and analysing the tiny vibrations of nearby objects – such as cars, drills or even pedestrians – across large geographical grids using fibre-optic cables. The vibration readings are then analysed and categorised on FiberSense’s digital platform SuperSoniQ, which it provides to clients as a subscription cloud-based service.

Just like your ears, SuperSoniQ is able to use vibrations to detect and recognise objects and events in real time over wide areas, but it can not see faces or things. It also cannot hear voices.

Vidar is the brainchild of FiberSense founder and CEO Mark Englund. 

Dr Mark Englund said that the technology will transform the way critical infrastructure assets such as power grids, telecommunication cables and sewerage pipes are managed, as well as be used to help enable autonomous vehicles.

“If you can access the fibre in the city’s grids … think of it like a street map … we could detect and then classify what we’re seeing across the whole footprint of the CBD in real time,” he told The Australian Financial Review.

Unlike internet of things businesses offering a similar service, no specialised equipment such as sensors is needed.

Customers use the SuperSoniQ platform to gain real-time intelligence on any event that could damage their assets.

Entrepreneur Bevan Slattery is calling the technology ‘bigger than 5G’.

I genuinely don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say this is simply the most exciting technology to ever come out of Australia… in fact, I’m starting to wonder if this could become as big as cloud.”

Sources:

Rich Lister’s latest tech play could be ‘bigger than 5G’ https://www.afr.com/technology/rich-lister-s-latest-tech-play-could-be-bigger-than-5g-20200827-p55pz8

VIDAR: A new technology that could be ‘bigger than 5G’ https://datacenternews.us/story/vidar-a-new-technology-that-could-be-bigger-than-5g

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Wednesday 27 November 2019 | 09:17 CET | News

The post US govt consults on procedures to ban risky ICT suppliers appeared first on EMFSA.

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is informing patients, health care professionals, IT staff in health care facilities and manufacturers of a set of cybersecurity vulnerabilities, referred to as “URGENT/11,” that—if exploited by a remote attacker—may introduce risks for medical devices and hospital networks. URGENT/11 affects several operating systems that may then impact certain medical devices connected to a communications network, such as wi-fi and public or home Internet, as well as other connected equipment such as routers, connected phones and other critical infrastructure equipment. These cybersecurity vulnerabilities may allow a remote user to take control of a medical device and change its function, cause denial of service, or cause information leaks or logical flaws, which may prevent a device from functioning properly or at all.

To date, the FDA has not received any adverse event reports associated with these vulnerabilities. The public was first informed of these vulnerabilities in a July 2019 advisory sent by the Department of Homeland Security. Today, the FDA is providing additional information regarding the source of these vulnerabilities and recommendations for reducing or avoiding risks the vulnerabilities may pose to certain medical devices.

Read more at these links:

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-informs-patients-providers-and-manufacturers-about-potential-cybersecurity-vulnerabilities

https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/safety-communications/urgent11-cybersecurity-vulnerabilities-widely-used-third-party-software-component-may-introduce

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