Author: Wesley Diphoko

04.24.20

WANTED: Cure for South African internet quality

BY Wesley Diphoko 2 MINUTE READ

The Internet, born as a Pentagon project during the chillier years of the Cold War, has taken a central role in 21st Century civilian society, culture and business that few pause any longer to appreciate. However, COVID-19 is now forcing us to appreciate it and recognise the integral role it plays in our everyday lives. 

Many facets of human life — work, school, banking, shopping, flirting, live music, government services, chats with friends, calls to aging parents — have moved online in this era of social distancing.

The resilience of the internet is currently being tested. Demand for online voice, video and VPN connections — all staples of remote work — have surged, and peak usage hours have shifted from evenings, when people typically stream video for entertainment, to daytime work hours. Internet service providers have seen double-digit increases in broadband usage, with BT claiming traffic on its fixed network climbed as much as 60% compared to normal weekdays, while Vodafone says it’s seen mobile data traffic increase by 50% in some markets. We are currently witnessing an increase that is normally expected in a year. Globally, this is now being seen in a matter of days and weeks.

In response, streaming services such as Netflix have taken steps to reduce their bandwidth utilization and cut picture quality in an effort to prevent network congestion. In Europe, streaming platforms have been urged to cut their video quality in order to prevent an overload.

During the lockdown period, South Africa has had its share of internet problems that were worsened by the West Africa Cable System (WACS) submarine cable which broke down and therefore affected SEACOM (the internet provider that South Africa relies on for its internet connectivity). This was later resolved earlier in April. The internet quality however is still an issue for many South Africans in lockdown.

As South Africa prepares to gradually lift the lockdown, the internet will continue to play a major role.

The post lockdown economy, if it is to succeed, will have to rely heavily on the internet.

The internet will be required for more than just watching Netflix videos. Instead, it will become the engine that drives the economy.  The current state of the economy will force the dreams about the 4th Industrial Revolution to become a reality.

The value of the internet in the economy and its current pressure has prompted ICASA to assign a temporary spectrum during the COVID-19 lockdown. The same thinking will be required for a post lockdown economy. The future economy is likely to be an internet economy and the current network infrastructure may not cope with the demand. There may be a need to treat some online platforms as more important than others. Education and health platforms may need to be prioritised without compromising the net neutrality principle. Society depends on this network infrastructure and it should therefore receive the necessary attention.

South Africa was never ready for the 4th Industrial Revolution. However, the COVID-19 pandemic is giving South Africa the necessary kick towards the 4th Industrial Revolution. Robots will have to fill our hospitals to safeguard health professionals as Tygerberg hospital is currently experimenting with Quintin – the robot. To implement social distancing effectively, some operations may need to be automated. 

All of these tasks will require high quality internet.  And if South Africa’s internet quality is not improved, the economy will without a doubt suffer.

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04.03.20

SA’s first ‘essential goods’ e-commerce lockdown store launched

BY Wesley Diphoko < 1 MINUTE READ

One of South Africa’s leading e-commerce platforms, LOOT, has responded to a call for essentials-only-sales during the current lockdown period with a nifty e-commerce solution. 

Loot.co.za has launched the Essentials Shop, which will deliver essential items to customers across South Africa. 

According to LOOT, the Essentials Shop is stocked with pantry staples such as non-alcoholic beverages, household cleaning materials, personal care items, baby and toddler essentials, stationery and other basic necessities. The e-commerce retailer will also stock protective equipment such as face masks and gloves.

The retailer highlighted that all of its delivery partners are practising contactless delivery and strict hygiene and sanitary practices as recommended by the WHO. LOOT is also ensuring that all staff and partners who are helping during this time are following strict hygiene protocol.

This comes at a time when some retailers are battling to maintain order and social distancing in their stores to avoid exposure to COVID-19 by shoppers. 

LOOT’s systems are able to differentiate between essential and non-essential goods. This means that if a customer wants to purchase non-essential items during this period, they would still be able to place the order but delivery will only take place after lockdown. 

Customers who try to purchase a combination of essential and non-essential goods during the lockdown period will receive a prompt at checkout to warn them that an order with non-essential goods cannot be shipped /delivered at present. From there, customers will be encouraged to remove the non-essential items and place a separate order once they have completed their shopping in the Essentials Shop. 

The retailer indicated that as the government expands the list of essential items, they will let any previous order deemed non-essential out of the warehouse. 

The usual LOOT delivery threshold still applies and all orders over R350 will receive free delivery.

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04.02.20

“Sorry” – says Zoom CEO

BY Wesley Diphoko 2 MINUTE READ

In a statement by CEO Eric Yuan to Zoom users globally, the video conferencing app has acknowledged that it has fallen short of adhering to necessary privacy and security standards. “We recognize that we have fallen short of the community’s – and our own – privacy and security expectations. For that, I am deeply sorry, and I want to share what we are doing about it” he said.

He elaborated that the platform was not designed for such a significant rise in and magnitude of users.

“We did not design the product with the foresight that, in a matter of weeks, every person in the world would suddenly be working, studying, and socialising from home. We now have a much broader set of users who are utilizing our product in a myriad of unexpected ways, presenting us with challenges we did not anticipate when the platform was conceived” 

Zoom’s recent growth has put it in the spotlight over a series of privacy and security issues. The platform has skyrocketed to 200 million daily users from 10 million in December 2019. The challenges of supporting 200 million users compared to just 10 million a few months ago are significant enough, but the privacy and security issues that have been uncovered recently present greater challenges for the company. Zoom is now freezing its feature updates and focusing on its security and privacy issues instead. 

All of Zoom’s engineering resources will now be focused on safety and privacy issues, and the company is planning a “comprehensive review” with third-parties to ensure it is handling the security of these new consumer cases properly.

The video conferencing platform was also called upon to release a transparency report to indicate the extent to which it’s access to data is requested by governments. The company is now committing to release a transparency report to share the number of requests from law enforcement and governments for user data.

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04.01.20

Privacy wars: Is Zoom safe for users?

BY Wesley Diphoko 3 MINUTE READ

Zoom has become the go-to video conferencing app for most information workers who are currently working from home due to Covid-19. 

Zoom has been considered the safer option for using end-to-end encryption in comparison to other platforms. In simple terms, this means that when conducting video calls via Zoom, no one else can view the call without authorisation. 

In the past, the platform has assured its users that its communications are encrypted. However, it has since been discovered that this is not necessarily true. According to a media report by The Intercept, Zoom is in fact using its own definition of the term – one that lets Zoom itself access unencrypted video and audio from meetings. According to the Zoom website and its security white paper, Zoom offers reliability, ease of use, and at least one very important security assurance: As long as you make sure everyone in a Zoom meeting connects using “computer audio” instead of calling in on a phone, the meeting is secured with end-to-end encryption.

The reality however is that the service actually does not support end-to-end encryption for video and audio content, at least as the term is commonly understood. Instead, it offers what is usually called transport encryption. This kind of encryption aims primarily to provide privacy and data integrity between two or more communicating computer applications.

For a Zoom meeting to be end-to-end encrypted, the video and audio content would need to be encrypted in such a way that only the participants in the meeting have the ability to decrypt it. The Zoom service itself might have access to encrypted meeting content, but wouldn’t have the encryption keys required to decrypt it (only meeting participants would have these keys) and therefore, would not have the technical ability to listen in on your private meetings. This is how end-to-end encryption in messaging apps works.

According to Matthew Green, a cryptographer and computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University, group video conferencing is difficult to encrypt end to end. According to Green, this is because the service provider needs to detect who is talking in order to act like a switchboard, which allows it to only send a high-resolution videostream from the person who is talking at the moment, or who a user selects to the rest of the group, and to send low-resolution video streams of other participants. This type of optimisation is much easier if the service provider can see everything because it is unencrypted.

Green points out to The Intercept that “If it’s all end-to-end encrypted, you need to add some extra mechanisms to make sure you can do that kind of ‘who’s talking’ switch, and you can do it in a way that doesn’t leak a lot of information. You have to push that logic out to the endpoints,”. 

He also pointed out that end-to-end is not impossible for video calls as it is currently by Apple through FaceTime. 

What this means is that Zoom has the technical ability to spy on private video meetings and could be compelled to hand over recordings of meetings to governments or law enforcement in response to legal requests. In addition, Zoom does not publish a transparency report as currently done by companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. Transparency reports describe exactly how many government requests for user data they receive, from which countries, and how many of those they comply with. This allows users of these services to know the extent to which their data is used.

Zoom has now been called upon by data advocacy organisations to release a transparency report to help users understand what the company is doing to protect their data.

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03.09.20

Op-Ed: Editor-in-Chief Wesley Diphoko on why Fast Company SA chose the Top 25 #MostInnovativeCompanies

BY Wesley Diphoko 2 MINUTE READ

South Africa is in a deep hole that will require more than just ordinary solutions. There has never been a better time for technology to showcase its ability to solve problems. In light of the current state of South Africa, real impact has been an overarching criteria in selecting companies that are worthy of the Fast Company Most Innovative Companies recognition.

The fundamental question during the process of judging nominated companies was: How are they  making a difference in people’s lives? How will their technology make a difference in future? Are they solving major challenges in society?

You don’t have to be a genius to understand that in South Africa and the continent at large, for any solution to be truly impactful, it has to solve challenges faced by the majority instead of just a few.

In an African context, it is important to work towards solving challenges that are experienced by the majority who live in rural areas and who have limited access to critical resources. Companies that are working and focusing on solving technological challenges and ensuring that everyone – even those in remote and rural areas – should be celebrated and supported. Companies that are solving challenges that have not been addressed before should be recognised for trying to solve challenges that truly matter.

Health challenges are a major set-back for South Africa, the continent and the world. There’s no doubt that companies that are focused on enabling access to health care and changing for the better how health care is provided matter today and will continue to matter in the future. Companies that are making a difference in health are worthy of recognition and support as their success will save lives and not make us look good with just photography.

Anyone who has an ability to think will understand that a population that is not educated will eventually impact negatively in society. Companies that are solving the education challenge today should be celebrated by all in society. Their success will not only benefit themselves but will have a multiplier effect and impact.

Fast Company SA considered this reality in the process of choosing the nominated companies to be recognised as the Most Innovative Companies in South Africa.

The founders and innovators in the chosen companies are the kinds of people who, if they were locked in a room, could solve some of South Africas major challenges.

Fast Company SA has chosen these companies to shine a spotlight on their efforts. They have shown and proven that they can make a difference. Some of them still need support to make a further impact – yet their concepts and ideas are something truly breaking new ground. Now that these companies are out there, every South African has an opportunity to support them and contribute to creating a major company that will take society to another level.

Get a copy of Fast Company SA’s latest issue now in stores and learn more about the Most Innovative Companies in South Africa.

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08.19.19

Is South Africa technologically and data-ready to provide National Health Insurance?

BY Wesley Diphoko 3 MINUTE READ

While there’s no shortage of noise about the fact that National Health Insurance (NHI) is unaffordable, which is probably justifiable, there has been a silence around how it would surmount technology challenges. There has been a lack of opinion on the technological and data readiness of South Africa to deliver the NHI.

In the US, when they implemented Obamacare, they experienced serious technology challenges. Obamacare was designed to provide numerous rights and protections that made health coverage fairer and easier to understand, along with subsidies (through “premium tax credits” and “cost-sharing reductions”) to make it more affordable. The online platform was key to enabling the facilitation of information and services related to the Obamacare programme.

The online platform initially was a major failure that almost cost Obama his presidency. The problems experienced with the Obamacare online platform were due to the following reasons:

  • Lack of relevant experience: The team that worked on the project had a lot of experience with private insurance markets and maintaining large government projects, but did not have required experience in technology product launches.
  • Key technical positions were unfilled and project managers had little knowledge of the amount of work required and typical product development processes leaving very little time to test and troubleshoot the online platform.
  • Lack of leadership: There was no formal division of responsibilities in place between the many government offices involved which caused a delay in key decision-making or a lack of communication when key decisions were made.
  • Schedule pressure: Since the launch date was mandated in the Affordable Care Act, the team that worked on the platform were pressured to launch on time regardless of completion or the amount and results of testing and troubleshooting performed.
  • Legacy systems: The government relied on its old technology to implement the NHI and this caused serious challenges with the functionality of the online platform.

As a result of these factors the rollout of the healthcare.gov online platform ballooned from the initial $93.7 million budget to an ultimate cost of $1.7 billion. The failure of this project was not unique to the US government. Research that was conducted in other countries working on other government projects showed that 94% of large federal information technology projects were unsuccessful, more than 50% were delayed, over budget, or didn’t meet expectations, and a total of 41.4% were judged to be complete failures.

The main contributing factor has been the fact that a large, bureaucratic organisation that has significant experience in core government policies struggles to behave like a technology start-up in successfully launching new technology. To deal with this challenge, the Obama government established a team that consisted of leading people from technology start-ups. South Africa in the process of implementing NHI is also likely to face data and information technology challenges. However, aside from technology, health data will be one of the most important aspects of the project that will need serious attention.

In order to avoid such technology challenges, South Africa will have to put technology and data standards together with other measures in the form of a blueprint. The blueprint and strategy will have to include the following:

  • Establishing and managing core health data, and the infrastructure for its exchange.
  • Establishing national and regional registries to create a “single source of truth”.
  • Create personal health records based on international standards, which are easily accessible to citizens and services providers, based on consent.
  • Promote enterprise-class health application keeping in mind sustainable development goals related to health – ensure national portability in the provision of health services, promote the use of clinical decision support systems by health professionals and practitioners, leverage health data analytics and medical research for better management of the health sector and enhance governance digital tools in the area of performance management.

Finally, health technology infrastructure will have to be built to ensure better management of health data. Finance has to be a concern for the NHI, but it should not cloud the need for other aspects such as technology to be taken care of to have a successful NHI.


Article originally published on iol.co.za. Wesley Diphoko is the editor-in-chief of The Infonomist. He also serves as the chairperson of the IEEE Open Data Initiative. You can follow him on Twitter via: @WesleyDiphoko

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