Marathons, triathlons and now hackathons. Honestly , I only had a vague understanding of the word ‘hackathon’ until I attended the recently concluded Cyberexchange conference. Even while writing this my computer doesn’t recognize the word.
In a nutshell it’s an event which brings together a number of people to collaborate and compete in computer programming. Easy enough to remember right? Now, African market experts, Sothes organized a two day Cyberexchange conference with Facebook being the most notable partner. The annual conference which was founded in 2014 brought industry experts together (public & private) to identify the key trends and technologies in Cyber Security.
While at the event, BusinessDay was able to snag an interview with Regina Wallace Jones, head of security operations at Facebook alongside the winning team of the two day hackathon. There were talks on fraud prevention, threat modelling and we even got to learn about how hackers could steal oil, special thanks to Tunde Ogunkoya (Deltagric consulting).
One major take away from the conference was the chilling fact on how vulnerable we all are with regards to our smart devices which are loaded with information we take for granted until it’s up for ransom. Yes, you heard me. Your information is liable to be, how do I say it , kidnapped? To the doubting Thomas’s, this is not in theory. There are notable cases of this in Nigeria, big companies inclusive.
The significance of such events could not be underrated, participants came from as far out as Gombe. We were privileged to learn about an emerging tech scene in Jos and the super-fast fiber optic internet in Sokoto. To investors and startups in the tech field, the signs cannot be ignored. Our tech industry is blossoming and you need not have second thoughts. Attending this conference was one eye opener to another, our next stop is a ‘virtual reality’ hackathon. What dreams may come?
To learn about the program developed by the winning team watch the interview here.
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