Following a 2018 agreement between Cape Verde Telecom and EllaLink in 2018, where the two agreed to deliver connectivity from Europe and Latin America to Cape Verde, the EllaLink International cable has been launched. The partnership has been supported by the European Bank of Investments and the local Government of Cape Verde and now Praia is connected directly and neutrally to Brazil and Europe.
This new cable offers the lowest latency available on the market, as well as a capacity of 30 Tbps, providing Cape Verde with the benefit of secure and optimised connectivity. The EllaLink connection between Latin America and Europe has reduced the latency between the two continents by close to 50%, from +100 milliseconds to circa 60 milliseconds compared to traditional routes.
The EllaLink subsea cable will additionally help strengthen the Cape Verde digital economy having connected Praia to three continents with neutrality and independence. DE-CIX in March confirmed plans to provide EllaLink with access to its interconnection ecosystem in Southern Europe, through their internet exchanges in Lisbon, Madrid and Marseille. The new system also creates opportunities for the country to increase the quality of the internet service offered to the country, and can be extended to all West Africa.
A Turkish court has jailed 16 Kurdish journalists for “belonging to a terrorist organisation” and their close cooperation with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Diyarbarkir. They were also accused of spreading terrorist propaganda and since 2016 several hundred HDP members have already been detained.
Nazim Bilgin, the president of the Journalists’ Association of Turkey warns that: “We are living in the darkest days of our country as far as press freedom is concerned.” It is also alarming that Turkey has jailed more reporters than most other countries in the previous decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The Batam Sarawak International Cable System (BaSIC) subsea cable has been launched and will strengthen internet connections between Batam, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi in Indonesia. The 700m system connects Sarawak, Malaysia and Batam, Indonesia, which is then connected via land cable to Pontianak in West Kalimantan.
The project started in 2020 and became operational on 1 June 2022. This cable system is an additional alternative international gateway for Indonesia to Kuching, Sarawak and Hong Kong and supports XL Axiata’s efforts to add new upstream international capacity to Indonesia.
BaSIC will deliver 6 fibre pairs offering an initial capacity 2Tbs, which will be gradually increased until it arrives at a maximum capacity of 48Tbs. The project is part of XL Axiata’s mission to provide infrastructure for better global internet access as well as to support the Indonesian government’s goal to encourage the use of digital technology.
Singapore-based satellite company Kacific has been working with Bis Data Indonesia and Primacom Interbuana and has completed deployment of over 2,500 sites for Bakti, the Indonesian government’s Telecommunication and Information Accessibility Agency.
Bakti director of infrastructure Bambang Noegroho has stated that, “With this satellite connectivity project, we take a significant step forward to our goal of the equal distribution of information and communication technology, to strengthen national unity, fuel economic growth and strengthen national resilience for disasters and emergencies.”
Indonesia’s universal service has been the source of funds for the project with one of its major aims being the provision of public internet access, through satellite services, in areas that have little or no access to affordable internet service including border areas and places that are not considered economically viable by terrestrial service providers.
Kacific’s CEO Christian Patouraux stated, “Bakti’s project aligns with Kacific’s mission to bridge the digital divide by providing access to affordable, high-speed internet in the most remote and under-served areas.” While deploying sites at remote destinations in multiple islands throughout the length of Indonesia was logistically challenging, the Kacific sites allow Bakti to secure guaranteed bandwidth at every single site with each terminal achieving speeds of over 85Mbps.
As part of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) goal to transform the country from social exclusion to an all-inclusive that would guarantee communications services for all, the commission convened an awareness and engagement programme for persons with disabilities in Lafia, Nasarawa State. The ongoing programme has accorded the commission opportunity to develop policies and regulatory guidelines that would address concerns of persons with disabilities regarding ICT accessibility.
In the welcome address read by Mr. Isa Olatiwo Deputy Director, Zonal Operations of the NCC on behalf of the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said: ‘An industry consultative meeting on service provision with respect to the disability group which was held in July, 2008 in order to sensitise both operating companies and equipment manufacturers on the need to jointly address challenges faced by people with disabilities. To join the information-rich countries of the world, the government of Nigeria pursued a continuous programme and aggressive market liberalisation policy that has made Nigeria one of the most liberalised telecom markets in the world.’
U.S Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) joined by several other Senators, have written a letter to the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ), through the Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging the department to provide better guidance and regulations to help State and local governments better comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (ADA) accessibility requirements on their websites, mobile applications and other forms of technology .
The letter read in part ‘For people with disabilities, website accessibility and other forms of accessible [technology] are necessities—not luxuries or conveniences—that foster independence, economic self-sufficiency and active, meaningful participation in civic life. Although the Department has clearly stated that the ADA applies to such digital spaces, the lack of specific requirements or technical compliance standards incorporated in regulation has led to a widespread lack of meaningful digital accessibility for people with disabilities. It is past time for the Department to issue robust clarifications and remedy this exclusionary status quo.’
One of the largest cyber crisis simulations organised by The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) has just been completed. With over 800 cybersecurity experts from 29 European countries and the European Free Trade Area (EFTA), it involved specialists from EU agencies and institutions as well.
This year, the exercises involved a scenario of a simulated attack on European healthcare infrastructure and they tested how participants’ respond to incidents in coordination with EU institutions. They involve the ability of close work with CERT-EU and ENISA in order to reinforce the resilience of the healthcare sector against cyber attacks in the EU with complex business continuity in crisis management situations.
These lessons will be published in ENISA’s ‘after-action report.’
The Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), i.e. Costa Rica’s public health service was hit by Hive ransomware and forced to shut its systems down. The ransomware was deployed on at least 30 out of 1,500 government servers, CCSS told local media.
Cybersecurity experts suggested that Hive might be working with Conti to help Conti rebrand.
The US announced the Declaration for the Future of the Internet, which was signed by 60 countries, outlines the vision and principles to reclaim the promise of the Internet and establish an open global network. The declaration is a response to the recent malpractices to control the internet. ‘Some states have been acting to repress freedom of expression to censor independent news sources, to interfere with elections, promote disinformation around the world and deny their citizens other human rights,’ said a Biden administration official. In this vein, the declaration’s principles include commitments to:
- Protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people;
- Promote a global Internet that advances the free flow of information;
- Advance inclusive and affordable connectivity so that all people can benefit from the digital economy;
- Promote trust in the global digital ecosystem, including through protection of privacy; and
- Protect and strengthen the multi-stakeholder approach to governance that keeps the Internet running for the benefit of all.
Workers with disability were among the hardest hit during the pandemic, and now millions of these workers face a living standards emergency – with lower pay than their non-disabled peers, but higher energy and transport costs.
With an estimated 1.3 Billion Persons with disability globally, let’s focus on the workplace power and potential being harnessed from this statistic when looked at as an under-tapped talent pool.
According to the Valuable 500 report , 54% of companies have an active disability inclusion accessibility policy.
The research reveals encouraging progress towards disability inclusion across business processes, from recruitment to advertising, with 81% of respondents declaring an improvement on their pre-pandemic disability strategies.
A consideration of disability is now central to many recruitment processes, to improve Persons with disability representation and foster an inclusive work ethos from the offset. 65% of respondents report adjusting their interview process, whilst 74% advertise as an inclusive employer, and 62% explicitly encourage applications from Persons with disabilities.
