Your databases are being watched

Your databases are being watched

The title of this piece is not a metaphor. When a database is compromised and goes unmonitored, an attacker is inside – querying, extracting, mapping access over weeks and months before anyone notices. The monitoring that would catch them, in most environments, does not exist. What makes this pattern consistent across sectors and incident types…

Read More
SITA appoints long-awaited board | ITWeb

SITA appoints long-awaited board | ITWeb

Cabinet has approved a new SITA board, for a three-year period. (Photograph by Lesley Moyo) A full complement of new board members has been announced by the State Information Technology Agency (SITA). This, as the embattled entity also welcomed its first permanent managing director Magatho Mello on 1 April, promising much-needed leadership stability for the…

Read More
Computerised testing closes learner licence loophole

Computerised testing closes learner licence loophole

A computerised learner’s licence testing system at a licensing centre in Cape Town. The computerised testing systems at licensing centres across the country have led to a “significant” decline in fraudulent learner licence passes, says the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC). Introduced in 2021, the computerised learner licence testing systems aim to combat widespread fraud…

Read More
Hyperscalers ate my next computer

Hyperscalers ate my next computer

I have been idly building the specs my next desktop PC – a Linux gaming and AI rig – for the better part of the past year. It is starting to feel like a doomed exercise. The plan was modest enough: enough memory to run a decent open-weight large language model locally – up to…

Read More
Wits restores learning platform after cyber attack

Wits restores learning platform after cyber attack

Wits University had an enrolment of 41 702 students as of 2025. (Image source: Wits) The University of Witwatersrand (Wits) has restored its learning management system, which had been compromised by hackers. This was confirmed by Shirona Patel, communications manager at Wits University, in a phone call with ITWeb. The confirmation comes after the ShinyHunters…

Read More
Major African telco postpones mobile money listing

Major African telco postpones mobile money listing

Thomas Mukoya/Reuters Airtel Africa on Friday delayed the planned public listing of its mobile money business to the second half of 2026 and forecast a near-term margin squeeze due to higher costs arising from the ongoing US-Israeli war against Iran. The war has triggered an unprecedented crunch in crude supplies from the Middle East and…

Read More
ITWeb TV: Blu Label targets lower Cell C shareholding

ITWeb TV: Blu Label targets lower Cell C shareholding

In this episode of ITWeb TV, Blu Label joint CEOs, Mark and Brett Levy reflect on building the company from car radios and prepaid vouchers to a diversified technology giant, while discussing Cell C’s turnaround, entrepreneurship, energy ambitions, leadership lessons and South Africa’s digital future. #CellC #Entrepreneurship #JSE Blu Label Unlimited, the majority shareholder in…

Read More
OpenAI’s new audio APIs aim for conversational voice agents

OpenAI’s new audio APIs aim for conversational voice agents

Image: Jernej Furman OpenAI introduced three audio models for its developer platform on Thursday, aiming to make voice-based software agents more conversational and capable of completing tasks in real time. The launch of the application programming interface (API) moves the ChatGPT maker beyond transcription and chat towards agents that can listen, translate and act during…

Read More