Apple’s developer website has been hacked. An email released by Apple informed the registered developers. It said that sensitive emails, names and physical addresses could have been conceded. This had forced them to take down the website on Thursday to stop further damage.

Last week in Thursday, a trespasser tried to protect personal information of Apple’s registered developers from their developer website.

“Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed; however, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers’ names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed. In the spirit of transparency, we want to inform you of the issue. We took the site down immediately on Thursday and have been working around the clock since then,” said Apple.

The multinational corporation company, apple, further said that it will have to do a complete webite renovation in order to prevent a similar security threat from happening again.

The last website shut down was due to a rush on the company’s iOS 7 beta release in early June. This week’s outage, however, was longer-lived – for much of a day – and for a much more damaging reason.

In most Apple hacks that happened previously, have been client –side, often through vulnerabilities in the Java software the company used to ship with OS X, and occasionally via social-engineering attacks on iCloud passwords.

Apple’ worst fear might be that hackers could gain access to its app store or the signing credential technology that certifies iPhone apps as safe, known, and malware-free. Apple does not want its consumers to consider the iOS ecosystem anywhere near as malware-laden as Android sometimes appears to be.

Nigeria’s Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) will build 5,000 base stations in five years.

Maikano Abdullahi, the secretary USPF, a special fund set up to provide telecommunications and ICT services to undeserved communities said last week Thursday at the unveiling of the funds five year strategic plan, 2013-2017 Strategic Management Plan (SMP).

Abdullahi said they will  focus on implementation of connectivity, which is inclusion of connectivity and access to ensure sustainability of the rural access.

USPF secretary said it will facilitate the building of new telecoms base transceiver stations (BTS) in the rural communities of the country. This is in line with  the new Strategic Management Plan (SMP) 2013-2017, where 1,000 BTS are to be built every year, over a period of five years.

Other key targets include the plan to support the deployment of 15, 000 kilometres of fibre optic cables, laying an average of 3,000km every year; and the deployment of Internet Point of Presence (PoPs) in 25 clusters over five years, with an average of five per year under the Fund’s Rural Broadband Internet (RUBI) scheme.

Also, the secretary disclosed that to achieve the new targets, USPF would, in the next two weeks, come up with Requests for Proposals from telecoms operators that would drive the infrastructure deployment, stressing  that the Fund would ensure there is transparency in the bidding process.This could be achieved through new operating model adopted for the current SPM, which focuses on an integrated approach to project strategy and execution  leading:

1.      to increase participation of industry operators;

2.      ensure implementation of well-planned and adaptable projects which suit a variety of ICT schemes;

3.      ensure availability of telecoms infrastructures in unserved and underserved area for universal access.

Speaking earlier, Joseph Tegbe, Partner, KPMG, the consultancy firm working with USPF on the rural access programme  said the SNMP 2007-2001 programmes and projects were well articulated but the USPF encountered some impediments in executing some of them.

Tegbe said: “There were too many projects. Also, projects were designed and defined using a ‘one size fits all’ approach, thus USP intervention, in some cases, did not directly address the specific needs of the beneficiaries, among others challenges.”

Speaking on the occasion, the Director of Telecoms and Postal Services in the Ministry of Communication Technology, John Ayodele, called for serious collaboration between the USPF, the telecoms operators and other necessary stakeholders to ensure the current SMP records appreciable success.

Naguib Sawiris an Egyptian millionaire told Reuters that his family has plans of increasing their investments in the country to money in billions of dollars. This comes after the July 3 ousting of President Mohammed Morsi by military force.

The millionaire revealed in a phone interview with Reuters, he also said that regardless of Egypt’s attractiveness as an investment destination in the wake of its political uncertainties, he will still go on with his plans.

“My family and I will inject investments in Egypt like never before, in any new projects we could invest in,” Sawiris said.

Being the oldest son of construction magnate Onsi Sawiris, the millionaire sad that his family is ready launch new projects and undertake new initiatives that could provide jobs for the young people of Egypt.

“There is no going back from what happened beginning on 30 June, and I am confident that Egypt’s temporary government understands its current role and is aware of what its priorities should be in the coming months. This provides us, as investors, with new business opportunities, particularly in the hotel and tourist industries,” said
Sawiris.

He added: “The removal of this fascist regime has led to a nationwide revival, which will lead to increases in rates of tourism, in addition to creating a more enlightened country.”

Naguib Sawiris, who is also a politician and  co-founder of Egypt’s Al Masreyeen Al Ahrrar  political party, has been a vocal critic of Morsi’s regime.

He left the country last year after Morsi was elected into power. He only returned to Egypt in May after a few senior executives who work with his Orascom Construction Industries were cleared of charges related to tax evasion, including Naguib’s brother Nassef Sawiris.

During his self-imposed exile, his political party participated in several anti-Morsi demonstrations. His privately-owned television station, ONTV regularly aired shows that criticized the regime.

The Sawiris family controls the Orascom Group, Egypt’s largest conglomerate, which owns interests in construction, telecom, hotels and technology and employs over 100,000 people.

Online payments and money transfers firm, PayPal, made one of its account holder’s richer with an astounding USD 92quadrillion last week by mistake.

The account owner Chris Reynold a resident of Delaware County said that he initially thought it was a debt, until he realized they had credited his account.

The email he was sent by the company stated that his balance stood at $92,233,720,368,547,800, although when he went to check the figure on the website, it showed a more usual balance of zero.

That amount of money is roughly equivalent to 14 months worth of the entire planet’s Gross Domestic Productivity.

Reynolds has been a PayPal customer for about 10 years, using it mainly for eBay transactions.

A side note, this reveals that in some way, the PayPal account balance tables in their database has the ability to carry values greater than the planet’s annual GDP — which maybe an indication of how large the firm thinks its financial services will grow to in the future.

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the coordinating minister of Nigeria’s and Finance Minister urged Nigerians to support home-grown unique equipment manufacturers.

The minister added that it is only through that way that technology could be transferred; new job opportunities will be created as well as assurance of a good life for the citizens.

This she said during a tour of the factory of Omatek Computers which is situated in Lagos. Okonjo-Iweala believed that instead of looking up to the Federal Government for sponsorship, Nigerians should support locally made electronics search as PCs, tablets and other ICT accessories.

“We will only succeed in this country if we patronise our own products. Let us look unto ourselves and leave government. If we patronise our own goods, we will grow the economy,” she said, adding that with a population of over 150 million people, the multiplier effect on the economy of patronising indigenous OEMs could only be imagined.

She also enjoined the Group Managing Director of Omatek Computers, Engineer Florence Seriki, to make her products competitive in terms of quality, insisting that it was only by doing so that her products could beat the competition posed by imported goods. She also urged her to look to the private sector for patronage instead of looking up to the government.

A while ago,the engineer conducted the minister around the expansive factory, where the government delegation was amazed by the huge investment Omatek had committed to the factory. 

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) declared that the licensing renewal agreement between EA Sports will not push through.  Electronic Arts (EA) Sports license will expire in June 2014; this means that the upcoming NCAA 2014 will be the last college football game released under the license.

The NCAA games were strong and expected and were a source of revenue for the EA Sports; however the games did not make so much money and was not as popular worldwide as FIFA.

Apart from making college football the company had also made a footprint in college basketball as well as baseball in the past. EA Sports had signed a deal in 2005 which had given them an exclusive license to NCAA teams, logos and a major competitive advantage over their major rival 2K. These are some of the things that the company would loose out on.

This piece of information doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be the end of the EA Sports making it to the NCAA games; it only means that they will have to negotiate with ever team and school at an individual level which is quite costly.

Disagreements are not something new to these college games and the license problem could be a result of a disagreement. Electronic Arts was hit with a class-action lawsuit accusing that the company’s licensing deals effectively gave it a monopoly over sports games, which it settled last year for USD27 million. Part of the contract in that resolution was that it would not enter into any other such agreements for five years.

It’s also gotten in trouble for including actual student athletes in its games, a no-no because college athletes are not supposed to be professionals and aren’t paid for their likenesses. Another class action lawsuit is ongoing about that.

The Zambian parliament is now set on going digital and it now pushing Parliament to go paperless by allowing lawmakers to use their mobile phones, laptops and iPads instead of paper to conduct business in the House.

“Allow us to use our cell phones, laptops and iPads, as we are in a technological and information age. We are tired of hiding the equipment when we are in the House,” Said Ronnie Shakipwasha the Member of Parliament of Keembe.

The Member of Parliament, who was contributing to a debate on the Parliamentary Reforms and Modernization, said that it was not compulsory to limit the use of electronic gadgets such as mobile phones, laptops and iPads in the House.

The electronic gadgets, he said are important, giving the example of Rwanda, where Parliament has already gone paperless. He argued the Zambian government to follow Rwanda’s example in using the devices.

Shikapwasha was supported by several Members of Parliament, including the Minister of Finance, Alexander Chikwanda, who equally called for reforms of the Zambian Parliament.

The Kenya revenue authority’s project to implement remote transmissions of Electronic Tax Registers data has begun and is aimed to be completed by December this year.

The project’s process will enable effective monitoring of ETRs to track usage, detachment and locality, among others.

The programme may also confine data for the purposes of executing a customer loyalty programme. KRA Commissioner General John Njiraini revealed that ITax roll out has been completed and all modules have been started and a formal launch expected in early august and mandatory electronic filing will be implemented by September 2013.

The commissioner also said that mobile payment platform is still being developed and is expected to begin by end of July 2013.

Njiraini also revealed that  PriceWaterCoopers has ranked Kenya at 164th place out of 185 countries in the world in 2013 On paying taxes, the position worsened from 153 (2011) to 154 (2012).

“Kenya must improve investment climate competitiveness through reform of tax processes,” he said