There is an upsurge of email scams, otherwise known as phishing scam where email conversations are intended to trick victims into making payments into a fraudulent bank account. At DewCIS, we take this opportunity to alert Internet users against ongoing email scammers who manipulate email addresses to deceive the victims into trusting the authenticity of the email and obtain sensitive information.
The scam starts by the fraudsters hijacking an otherwise very genuine email conversation between a supplier say of email address Frankline Njuguna <fnjuguna@tamshi.com> resident in Kenya and a genuine client John Doe <johndoe@shippers.com> resident in Spain for example.
Because scammers are motivated by money, they will lay in wait and only hijack the email conversation when a prospect of payment is real.
At this point, the fraudster will create parallel seemingly similar email addresses as follows; Frankline Njuguna <frjuguna@tamshi.dr> for the supplier and John Doe <johrdoe@shippers.com.dr for the customer.
With this communication hijacked, the fraudsters will be well positioned to act as both the supplier and the client sharing only that information they find appropriate such as fraudulent banking details to the unsuspecting client.
The supplier still believing that they are communicating with genuine client negotiates and shares quotations with the client, while the client still believing that they are dealing with the genuine supplier confidently makes payment to the fraudulent bank account. Immediately the money hits their account, the fraudsters immediately cease communication and disappear into thin air.
It is only when the client doesn’t receive the agreed services in time and either makes a call or reach out using another channel to the supplier that the parties realize that they have been defrauded.
This sort of trickery is not very sophisticated at all. The fraudsters are simply taking advantage of our “humanness”; that users do not often care to check the true email addresses of the people they are interacting with. Thus, the fraudsters simply modify the email address but retainsthe username of the source and or recipients, and therefore catching us unawares.
This is very easily done within existing domain registries. For example, it would cost someone just about $ 2 to register a shippers.com.drdomain and create an email address johrdoe@shippers.com.dr for use to defraud unsuspecting users.
From this fraud, it is clear that the fraudsters are possibly collaborating with an insider at either the client or the supplier business; the accomplice who steals the email trail from the mailbox and shares with the fraudsters. Since this is the point of entry and therefore the weakest link, there is need to limit transactional email communications such as those with bank account details to only the necessary staff.
The other very important check is to encourage communication between the customer and the supplier using alternative channels including telephone, WhatsApp etc particularly as a follow-up to ensure the appropriate banking details are shared.
Another practical way of preventing email fraud particularly on sensitive or confidential information is to wrap the content of your emails encrypted with a password that is time bound to expire within a specified time period. To ensure that none other than the intended recipient accesses the message, the passwords ought to be sent via a different channel such as via a phone call or SMS.
While it takes practice to pay attention to domain email addresses of users, we are encourages to always be vigilant so that one can spot the tweaks and tiny differences in email addresses and catch the fraudsters on their tracks and avoid losses.
The stark reality of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the cracks in health care systems to adequately provide support to the affected patients.
We realize the importance of ventilators as critical for the care of people with lung failure, one of the complications suffered by patients with severe COVID-19 attacks. The scarcity of ventilators is worsened by the fact that hospitals have to reserve ventilators to treat non-COVID-19 cases such as heart attacks, strokes and other emergency cases even at this time of the pandemic.
While we appreciate that the time at hand is not adequate to develop a fully compliant ventilator based on the government specifications, we believe that developing a low-cost portable automatic respirator with minimum features available to Wanjiku would save lives. Among other features, the machine should have invasive and non-invasive feature, and supports 400-700 mL tidal volume, with a continuous working capability for 2-3 days. Furthermore, any innovation must be attentive to the needs of the larger group of the population as opposed to the few.
To tackle this imminent shortage, at DewCIS we envision a simply home-made ventilator, a mechanical breathing device that is able to blow both air and oxygen into the lungs. Rather than reinventing the wheel, our innovation is to reuse locally available parts to assemble a ventilator. Our vision is to empower every homestead to own a ventilator at minimum cost, using a simple one-page instruction DIY manual.
The device is made of an automatic motor pulling a tough string pulley tied to the board, which then squeezes the bag-valve mask, often called ‘Ambu Bag,’ used for resuscitation in emergency situations, to push oxygen and air into the lungs.
Assembling “Wanjiku” Ventilator, I Prototype
The device can be assembled from locally readily reusable parts, and consumer off-the-shelf components
Motor & Motor ControllerA basic direct current (dc) motor with 7 kg torque is preferable. A car wiper motor would do. The motor controller gives the various modes of operating the motor.
Tough string1-meter long tough nylon string, easily available from a used clothe
Bag-valve maskoften called ‘Ambu Bag,’ used for resuscitation in emergency situations, available at local chemists
12V direct current (dc) supplya car battery would do, an old computer power supply module or an adaptor for the 240V alternating current (ac) supply
Arduino MicrocontrollerSupports programmable features of the apparatus.
Other parts including casing can be crafted at home or from local jua kali kiosks.
This Wanjiku ventilator is portable, and therefore adoptable in villages and other low cost residential areas without reliable power supply, and is inexpensive enough to scale up in bulk production. In dire situations, an ingenious 4-way valve splitter can be used to serve upto 4 different patients.
Future models & improvements
Craft a more durable base and casing to offer sturdy mechanism.
Introduce gears and pulleys for a smooth air flow and eliminate jerking.
Program the motor motions to allow supports of a range of tidal volumes.
Include user interface to allows selection of preset inspiratory:expiratory ratios.
We are creatures of habit in what we eat, where we work, what TV shows we watch, when we work out etc. Right now with Covid-19, all those habits have been shoved out of the window. The extensive social distancing policies put in place to limit the spread of COVID-19 means most people will have to spend much, if not all, their time at home.
With new terms as “keeping social distance “, gyms have closed their doors, but does that mean we stop exercising and keeping fit? Remember one of the things you should do to fight this Covid-19 monster is to be physically fit. So, as we still keeping our social distance and quarantine ourselves, we can still exercise and maintain a healthy routine. Here are a few exercise routines you can embrace and practice.
Take a walk
There are a million and one benefits of walking, which have, long been documented, this benefits include reducing the risk of heart disease, strengthening bones and muscles, and improving your mood according to medical gurus. Walking just for 30 minutes a day can make a difference.
There is a question of how to take a walk while still maintaining social distance? Well that should not worry you if you follow simple instructions of keeping a six-foot distance between yourself and others and also wearing a mask as you take the walk.
Stairs climbing
Using the stairs is an extremely time-efficient way to maintain fitness, and of course it’s free. If you live in an apartment with lifts, how about avoiding that uncomfortable lift encounters with other self-isolating neighbors by using the staircase for any necessary outdoor journeys. While at it, take care to avoid much contact with handrails.
Online exercise Classes.
Take advantage of the wealth of online exercise classes. Many of these are free and can be found on YouTube. With the quarantine and social distance directives, we can create our own gym through YouTube, with over a thousands of exercise videos available online. Since so many of us have smart TVs these days, one great way to build a library is to save a number of workouts into playlists you can easily stream onto the sets around your house.
Make sure to gather workout clips that cover the whole body: upper body workouts, lower body, abs, butt, cardio, strength, yoga, balance, flexibility and stretching.
Dancing
Dancing is an excellent way to protect your heart lowering anxiety, reduce stress, and increase your flexibility amongst other many benefits.
Dancing also has established mental health benefits to help us cope with the coronavirus-imposed solitude. We can all agree staying at home weather working or not with this pandemic can easily stress and break anyone, even the strongest.
That said we can use this isolation time and experience the magic of music whether its reggae, Rock, local music which ever floats your boat, it will not be difficult to turn up the volume of your stereo a little higher and turn your lounge or kitchen into a little dance hall and lets dance the COVID-19 blues away at home like nobody’s watching.
Yoga
With the Covid -19 crisis almost every one has been left worried, stressed and lonely with no routine. There is no better time to start practicing yoga.
It can be practiced in the comfort of your own home, at any level, regardless of how silly you may feel.
Doing Yoga on a regular basis can be extremely beneficial for your flexibility, help you boost your strength and improve your overall fitness.
With a focus on self-care, deep breathing, meditation and exercise, yoga has proven benefits for both mind and body.
Setting aside time for yoga also provides routine in your day and gives your mind a break while working from home.
Total beginners or experts could follow YouTube Videos, or purchase a book of yoga poses to work from.
.. We do this because Music has the power to quench mental anguish; is a form of art, which is universally accessible and has instantaneous effects on our minds.
One time, when eavesdropping on a conversation of two colleagues discussing why he listens to Reggae, I found his response reaffirming at the least “ that Reggae cleanses from within and helps my mind achieve new potential, unlocking unlimited resilience when writing software codes.” His view was attested to by the ancient Hindus who believed that suffering caused by man’s uncontrolled thinking could be soothed by music therapy.
Expressive musical activities, often visible amongst some colleagues in the office singing along to streaming music, enhance the positive self-image and improve coping skills. Visibly so, because singing is a unique exercise calling upon our concentration, meditation, and breathing exercises all taking place unconsciously and simultaneously.
Nevertheless, listening to music of different genres and musical patterns affect the brain in different ways, firing disparate rush of emotions and behavioural patterns. Study has shown that listening to classical music can expand ones spatial reasoning, while listening to jazz helps with stress management. Traditional rhythmic music including chants, stringed instruments, drums and horns are very relaxing, appealing to our spirituality when played moderately loud.
Heavy metal music is great for reducing negative emotions and regulating anger and depression, especially among teens seeking validation for belonging. Avid listeners of rock music on the other hand, believe in its ability to enhance creative thinking. Listening to the sounds of nature has been shown enhance cognitive function and concentration; it is no wonder writers take time away into nature to craft their stories.
When all is said and done, music needs a mind to appreciate it. The material essence of music is found in its melody, harmony, rhythm, and dynamics. Melody gives music soul, while rhythm blends the expression of harmony and dynamics with the tempo of the beat to create a recognizable pattern.
Take a shot for those who love the sounds of the beat and be blown away by the dancing waves generated using the new revolutionary ambisonics recording technology sampled here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwNDNuC5XsQ.
But again, for those who love quiet, continue listening to the sounds of silence like the beats of your heart punctuated with the clatter of the keyboard produced by your dancing fingers. It’s all music!
We are so much used to waking up every morning, getting ready to go to work. Nobody knew that a time would come when we would all be forced to stay at home and work from there. Many were confused on how, we would be able to work from home especially when we are all working in different fields. Thanks to Google, all answers that we need are there. There are so many tools that we can use while working from home to accomplish the same goals that we try to achieve everyday while going to work. Some of these tools are discussed below;
Stable Internet
Stable, strong Wi-Fi at home is an important thing at this moment. A reliable Internet connection is no longer a frivolous wish, but an increasingly necessary tool now that so many employees are working from home.
With stable Internet You can check email without delay. You can go to websites and not run into unexpectedly long loading times. A stable connection is a lot like a road without traffic. With unstable Internet you could lose out on potential customers, miss important emails, or slow your employees’ efficiency down to a crawl.
Email
Imagine you walk into your office in the morning and the first thing you do is check your emails. What makes it different while working from home? It makes it easier to communicate to clients and colleagues via mail as compared to making a phone call or sending a text message. Unlike other forms of communication, emails are more reliable when it comes to passing official communication to people. They can easily be accessed at the convenience of the recipient and are not bias to the time of day that one should send an email. It’s also fast to send official documents via email since just clicking a button does it. Emails also are more economical to use since one only spends very little to communicate.
Online document filling
We fill documents in order to store vital information for future reference. It becomes hard to fill these documents manually while working from home and send them to relevant people on time. While this is the case, filling these documents online is the easiest and most effective way of storing information. It saves on costs of printing and filing, the information is safer online since its free from loss, the information can be easily retrieved by just clicking a button and it also saves people time by sharing the document to as many people as possible using emails.
Online accounting to enable generation of Quotations, Invoices and Receipts
Most of us think that it is only people who are in the field of IT are able to work from home. Coming to think of it, technology has not only advanced in the field of IT but it cuts across all fields accounting being one of them. There are many existing online platforms that enable the generation of quotations, invoices and receipts among other things entailed in accounting. These tools can be accessed by anyone across the globe so long as they are connected to the Internet.
Online meeting applications –Zoom
The sudden and unexpected coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic has had a drastic impact on the way people work in just a few months. Many organizations are relying on technology and application such as a Zoom to allow their employees to work remotely and stay safe.
Zoom is the current go-to videoconference platform, and has the best video webinar functionality. It also allows users to record meetings and has group collaboration capabilities. Users can create groups and instantly send text, image, or audio files to the members of those groups.
Online and Integrated payment Mpesa and online banking system
We are very fortunate to be living in the era where Mpesa has become the norm instead of using paper money. This has made businesses work more efficiently since one can send money through Mpesa to purchase a product regardless of where they are. Many online platforms that people use to sell and market their products have integrated payment through Mpesa, which has increased security of the money and has also made businesses grow at a very high rate. Online banking as another feature of transferring money, has saved so many businesses since one doesn’t have to go to the ATM in order to purchase a product. Both Mpesa and online banking system are very useful in enabling people work from home in a more efficient and effective manner.
Cloud hosted business applications
Just as the name “cloud” suggests, these business applications can be accessed from anywhere so long as one has Internetconnection. What this means is, even while working from home, one is able to use these applications to grow their business and share information with fellow colleagues and clients.
Conclusion
As an organization we have had first hand experience with most of our employees working from home and we can attest its experience, which has given us a whole new perspective.
Being an IT firm we can help your organization set up all the tools discussed above and enhance your employees to efficiently work at home be productive and observe the much needed social distance as we fight the Corona virus
Throughout the world, startups have come up and thrived, and existing businesses have reworked and fine-tuned their operating models to better serve their customers, be more efficient and increase their revenues.
Often, though, businesses make the mistake of assuming that good ideas just happen; or even worse, we get caught up in the mind trap that creativity is an aptitude where some people are born with it while others just don’t have it. Then, there is even another self-defeating belief that makes success even harder to grasp; “I am not intelligent enough to come up with good ideas.”
Well, for the many of us trapped in this whirlpool, an emerging way of thinking reassures that, to prosper, enterprises actually require a unified business model generation tool that combines the experience of the entire team through structured, tangible, and strategic conversations around new business ideas, shared on a common canvas.
This tool resembles a painter’s canvas, pre-formatted puzzle with the nine blocks, which allows you to paint pictures of new or existing business ideas. The Business Model Canvas (BMC) works best when printed out on a large surface so that groups of people can jointly start sketching and discussing business model elements with sticky notes or board markers. It is a hands-on tool that fosters understanding, discussion, creativity, and analysis.
Central to any successful business is the customer. We complete the puzzle by pairing the BMC with the Value Proposition Canvas (VPC), that which persuades customers to choose your products or services over another. Each Value Proposition consists of a selected bundle of products and or services that caters to the requirements of a specific Customer Segment. In this sense, your Value Proposition is an aggregation, or bundle, of benefits that your enterprise offers customers. Some Value Propositions may be innovative and representative of new or disruptive offers, while others may be similar to existing market offerings, but with added features and twists.
It therefore goes without saying that Value Proposition is all about the customer. Intimately knowing your customers is the first key step towards capturing their aspirations. Appreciating the things that block them from completing their jobs, herein referred to as “Pains”, the reasons they are seeking a new solution; the positive effects the customer yearns to realize by completing their jobs or from using a product or service, herein referred to as “Gains”, including their larger ambitions and desires; and finally the customer’s functional, emotional, social and supporting ‘jobs’, herein referred to as “Goals”, form the guiding principles of what products and services you ought to provide, to relieve the pains of the customer and create the gains they desire.
‘Magic’ will then start to happen when businesses find the perfect balance for the customer needs and expectations on the one hand, and the supplier’s products and solutions on the other hand.
Evidently, BMC and VPC have had many early adopters across the developed world, and the influence continues to grow in these regions. In African, and at DewCIS in sessions delivered through our workshops, we believe that with increased interest towards entrepreneurship and innovation, both the BMC and VPC would be useful tools for startups as well as for established firms in their search for the ‘Magic’.
Rapidly changing social and business environments create a need for software development methodologies to be adaptable and produce high quality software in a very short time. This means that developers need to be thoroughly trained not only in technology but also in project management techniques. Some of the project management techniques used in modern software development, such as Agile methodologies and Scrum, can only be learned by hands-on experience. Opportunities for many software developers in Kenya to gain skills by participating in projects using these techniques are limited.
Two Kenyan companies have teamed up with a Dutch software firm to overcome this problem through a training scheme called CodePamoja.
What is CodePamoja?
CodePamoja is a vocational training program where Kenyan developers learn how to work to international quality standards using the latest project management techniques. The training focuses on complementing technical skills acquired from undergraduate level training with up-to-date project management experience and exposure to Enterprise Software Development techniques.
A unique opportunity
CodePamoja trainees learn by collaborating with developers in the EU on real projects. This is a unique opportunity to gain experience in the latest project management methods and software tooling by working with more experienced developers – people who have worked on some of the largest software development projects in Europe.
How it works
CodePamoja uses a buddy system where Kenyan developers collaborate with developers in the Netherlands in Virtual Teams. The emphasis is on knowledge sharing and there is no set training agenda or syllabus. People attending CodePamoja can work part-time or full-time, with reasonably flexible hours. Typically someone will attend CodePamoja for around three months depending on skills levels. Multiple projects can be in progress at any one time, people may work on more than one project simultaneously and may join projects at any stage in their lifecycle from design to deployment. The virtual teams and projects are coordinated using Scrum, which means regular meetings and discussions to review project progress.
What can you expect at the end?
After attending the CodePamoja program developers will understand how modern systems are built using Enterprise software development techniques. An understanding of the importance of teamwork will have been developed. Attendees will have learnt how to produce high quality software and keep up with rapid development cycles by making use of Agile methodologies and Scrum. Technical skills will be enhanced through exposure to tooling (e.g. git, Grunt, Gulp, SASS). Programming skills will be enhanced depending on needs and wishes of the individual.
The Ideal Applicant:
Candidate trainees are recent graduates with a BSc. Computer Science or Bachelors in Business IT (BBIT Degree) from a reputable university. Applicants must possess basic skills in one or more programming languages (Java, JavaScript, PHP etc), a scripting language, HTML & CSS and/or database management.
How to Apply
1.Click on https://portal.dewcis.com/hr/application.jsp?view=1:0 2. If you have created your credentials before, login and apply for the post. 3. If new applicant, fill in details in Applicant, save all the details. After saving, a login username and password are sent to your email. 4. Login to the Dewcis portal with these credentials. 5. Fill in all details as required: Applicant’s details
Address
Education
Employment
Seminars
Projects
Skills
Referees
Save all these details
6. Internship – > Internship posts -> Click on ‘Apply for internship’
7. You will get an email confirming the application
NB;In case you are stuck on your application process please go to the
