TECH NEWS

Kenyan president signs controversial cyber-crimes law Nairobi, Kenya |  AFP |   Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday signed into law a sweeping cyber-crimes act criminalising fake news and online bullying, with clauses that critics argue could stifle press freedom. The bill imposes stiff fines and jail terms for hacking, computer …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | It looks like a real heart. And this is the goal of the first entirely soft artificial heart: to mimic its natural model as closely as possible. The silicone heart has been developed by Nicholas Cohrs, a doctoral student in the group led by …

Paris, France | AFP | Facebook axed 583 million fake accounts in the first three months of 2018, the social media giant said Tuesday, detailing how it enforces “community standards” against sexual or violent images, terrorist propaganda or hate speech. Responding to calls for transparency after the Cambridge Analytica data …

Seoul, South Korea | AFP |  North Korea on Wednesday called into question a much-anticipated and unprecedented summit between its leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump. Pyongyang also cancelled high-level talks due Wednesday with Seoul over the Max Thunder joint military exercises being held between the US …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Swiss watchmaker Jaquet Droz recently unveiled a name signing machine, which replicates your signature to perfection. It costs US$365,000 (Approx. Shs1.3 billion). The target market includes celebrities or other famous people who spend a lot of time signing documents, and busy business people who do …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | In China, health insurance companies apparently offer discounts to people who can prove they get enough exercise every day by using their mobile phones to monitor their movement. Only instead of actually going for walks, some people use ingenious perpetuum mobile devices (Perpetual Motion mobile …

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The National Identification and Registration Authority- NIRA and telecom companies are now able to match and verify customer’s information against the national identification database. This follows the provision of connectivity to the Application Programming Interface (API) at NIRA, according to the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC). …

95% of cybercrimes go unreported, report Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | According to the Uganda Cyber Security report 2017, 95% of cyber security incidents went unreported and yet of those reported; only 4.4% of reported cases were followed to successful prosecution. The report released early this month by the African …

Vandenberg Air Force Base, United States | AFP | NASA on Saturday blasted off its latest Mars lander, InSight, designed to perch on the surface and listen for “Marsquakes” ahead of eventual human missions to explore the Red Planet. “Three, two, one, liftoff!” said a NASA commentator as the spacecraft …

San Francisco, United States | AFP | Google on Friday said that people looking to place US election ads on its platform will need to show identification, and make clear who is paying. Policy changes being rolled out come as online ad ‘duopoly’ Google and Facebook strive to avoid being …