Raxio Data Centre Ltd (“Raxio”) is setting up Uganda’s first state-of-the-art data centre in the Namanve Industrial and Business Park.

Raxio was established earlier this year by the Roha, a US greenfield investment company that builds and and develops new businesses across Africa.

Raxio has also appointed James Byaruhanga as General Manager. James Byaruhanga is a Ugandan national, with m According to Robert Mullins, Director of Raxio, its data centre is the “country’s first Tier III, truly carrier-neutral co-location facility and is ideally located just outside Kampala’s CBD, a key requirement for disaster recovery and business continuity.”

“When it opens in mid-2019, this centre will ensure the equipment housed within it operates optimally, 24/7, in a fully safe, secure and redundant environment. At full capacity, the centre will be able to house up to 400 racks, delivering 1.5MW of IT power,” he said. The data centre has been designed to global Tier III standards by Future-Tech, a UK specialist data-centre design company with over 30 years of experience.

Raxio has also appointed Symbion, a leading local architectural firm to carry out the civil and structural design of the building. Future-Tech and Symbion are working hand-in-hand to oversee the building and commissioning of the centre. Construction is set to start this quarter.

Commenting about the centre, James Byaruhanga said it is a timely investment in Uganda’s Knowledge and ICT sector with wide strategic national benefits that go beyond its primary function of serving as a disaster recovery facility for improved business continuity of financial institutions, enterprises and government MDAs.

More than 18 years of experience in the ICT industry as a manager in several leading telecom companies and internet service providers.

“We believe that with the growth in data usage and storage and the broader digital transformation of businesses and the public sector being witnessed in Uganda today, a Tier III data centre will be a key pillar to Uganda’s digital economy and will stimulate and support the growth and digitalisation of the Ugandan economy and thus help meet the goals set in the MoICT Data Strategy and the broader National Development Plans,” he said.

He added: “With this world-class facility, we shall attract major global content data networks, cloud services providers as well as regional carriers to Uganda. Other than bringing critical services closer to the local market, this will make internet services cheaper and faster to the end user, but most importantly, bring down the overall cost of connectivity in the country, thus increasing global competitiveness of Ugandan businesses.”

He also said the project would contribute significantly to job creation and tax revenue generation.

Experts have discovered the distribution of an unusual fraudulent scheme that tricks users into parting with their time and their data, for no return. By creating fake websites for the free generation of gift cards, cybercriminals are able to “sell” users’ data to third-party partner sites, to which they redirect victims.

While industry and law enforcement agencies from around the world are busy fighting against cybercrime, criminals themselves are constantly looking for new ways of earning money – other than just malware. Offering something valuable free of charge is always an enticing piece of marketing, and criminals can take advantage of this. Websites that offer customers the option of freely generating gift cards for well-known companies – like iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, or Steam – are nothing new. For example, legitimate apps like Token file and Swagbucks buy card codes from vendors, to then give them to clients as a reward for certain activities. Criminals have apparently recognised the popularity of such websites and have decided to deceive users using a simple algorithm.

When on the fake site, the user is asked to select the gift card he/she wants in order to receive the code. After that, the fraudulent mechanism is set in motion. To get the generated code, however, the user needs to prove that he/she is not a robot. To do this, the user has to follow the suggested link and complete various tasks, the number and type of which are determined by the partner network to which the user is redirected. For example, he/she may be asked to fill in a form, leave a phone number or email address, subscribe to a paid SMS-message, install adware, and so on.

The result is predictable: either victims get tired of doing endless tasks, or they finally get the useless code. The earnings for criminals range from a few cents per every click on the desired link to several dozen dollars for filling in a form or subscribing to paid services. Thus, the criminals make a profit virtually for nothing, getting paid from the user’s actions on the websites of third-party partners, who, for their part, also benefit by getting access to personal data which can be used for private purposes.

“The success of these new fraud schemes is based on criminals exploiting the drive of users to get something for free. However, at best they will spend hours of personal time doing worthless tasks, and at worst – lose money without receiving anything in return. So, if you want to get your hands on a free gift card, try to earn it on legal and trustworthy sites,” said Lyubov Nikolenko, web content analyst, Kaspersky Lab.

To avoid falling for cybercriminals’ fraudulent schemes and losing personal data, Kaspersky Lab researchers suggest that users follow a few simple rules:

•Remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch and always treat offers that seem too tempting to be true with scepticism.
•Check the HTTPS connection and domain name when you open a webpage. This is especially important when you are using websites which contain sensitive data – such as sites for online banking, online shops, email, social media sites etc.
•Never share your sensitive data, such as logins and passwords, bank card data etc., with a third party. Official companies will never ask for data like this via email.
•Do not spread questionable links among your friends.
•Check with the company if it really is giving out gift codes, and whether the site is its official partner. To do this, contact the official support service by reaching out on the official website of the company.
• Use a reliable security solution with behaviour-based anti-phishing technologies to detect and block spam and phishing attacks, such as Kaspersky Total Security, which blocks fake gift card sites.