The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has launched its Technology Innovation & Entrepreneurship Scheme that is specially designed for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Tech startups.

This was disclosed in a statement shared by the agency and signed by Head, Corporate Affairs, and External Relations, NITDA, Hadiza Umar. In the statement, she explained that the scheme, which targets young skilled Nigerians, would enable the digital economy needed for the growth of the nation’s economy.

She said, “It is part of Nigeria’s plan to create 100 million jobs in 10 years, and the program would be beneficial for ICT and tech startups in the nation. There is the need to build support systems that would help in reducing the barriers of entry for startups while increasing the capacity of hubs and startups to create new bankable products and services.

“NITDA initiated a scheme to provide opportunities for building the capacity of both hub owners and start-ups to ensure massive creation of technology entrepreneurs and jobs within the industry.” 

According to her, the Digital economic Policy goes in line with the NITDA scheme which ensures skilled hub managers have the necessary support for tech startups and “build innovation ecosystems in their localities.

READ MORE: NCC creates digital economy department to harness technology in Nigeria

 “It will also build the capacity of hubs to support startups and build local innovation ecosystems, encourage innovation, increase technology and entrepreneurship skills among aspiring and existing entrepreneurs” she added.

She also said the programme will help create local content in Nigeria’s ICT space, render services, and jobs in the innovation and tech sector. The hub managers are required to sign agreements with NITDA to enable them to train managers for other regions. Covering infrastructure needs like Internet and power supply. 

 “The participants will also be matched with mentors and guided by coaches as they build out their products and services. At the end of the training period, participants will be required to choose if they would like to begin a startup or to get a job,” she added.

She revealed that those who sign up will be placed in a six-month incubator programme which will allow them to gain skills and work experiences needed to build a digital economy. Interested participants are advised to apply, as the portal closes on the 24 of July. See the portal here

Twitter Inc has announced that some users may be unable to tweet, reset their password, or access other functionalities, as the tech company tries to address the breach on its systems on Wednesday.

According to its tweet, the most accounts affected by this freeze are verified individual accounts, including those with no evidence of being compromised.

We also limited functionality for a much larger group of accounts, like all verified accounts (even those with no evidence of being compromised), while we continue to fully investigate this.

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 16, 2020

This freeze is, however temporary as users and verified account holders should be able to tweet as soon as the breaches on the internal systems are addressed, and their accounts are confirmed to be secured.

The disruptive move, according to the company, is a necessity, and users will be updated on the progress of the investigations and their account functionalities.

In its Thursday morning tweet, Twitter announced that investigations are ongoing to decipher how the attackers were able to gain access to its internal systems and tools.

Nairametrics reported the breach of the Twitter accounts of top personalities, with the hackers tweeting about a BTC giveaway, and BTC doubling.

READ MORE: Microsoft acquires CyberX to beef cybersecurity

Speaking about the breach, Twitter issued a statement;

“We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools.

“We know they used this access to take control of many highly-visible (including verified) accounts and Tweet on their behalf. We’re looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed and will share more here as we have it.”

As soon as the breach was detected, the affected accounts were locked down, and Twitter took down the fraudulent tweets.

The company however promised that all of the compromised accounts will be restored as soon as the security has been re-established.

The statement added that steps have been taken to “limit access to internal systems and tools” while investigations are ongoing, and heighten the security of the medium in the future.

Backstory

Bitcoin scammers, on Wednesday, hacked into the Twitter accounts of many top personalities and leading brands, including Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Kanye West, and Uber, tweeting about a BTC giveaway. They later tweeted that they would double Bitcoins for BTC holders.

According to Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of the world’s leading crypto exchange Gemini, the scammers were only able to make away with “a paltry sum,”, giving rise to thoughts that there might be other reasons for the attack.

Twitter has commenced investigations into the attack.

Meanwhile, Tron founder, Justin Sun has put a bounty on those responsible for the attacks, saying he is ready to give $1 million to the person or persons responsible for tracking down the hackers.

Following a huge amount of breaches on many top global brands, having their Twitter accounts tweeting about a BTC giveaway, Tron founder, Justin Sun has put a bounty on those responsible for the attacks.

In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, Tron’s founder, Justin Sun disclosed he was ready to give $1 million to the person or persons responsible for tracking down the hackers. He added by saying;

“We are working closely with Twitter to resolve this issue immediately and return our accounts to normal. We are always vigilant in the handling of our accounts; operating safely and responsibly — taking the security of our accounts to the highest standards possible. This only further illuminates the urgent need for our society to adopt decentralized, trustless software and services.”

Quick fact, Justin Sun is a Chinese tech entrepreneur, the founder of a renowned crypto-asset, Tron and the present leader, BitTorrent. Sun became very popular after placing a record-breaking $4.5 million bid to have a private lunch with Warren Buffet in June 2019.

READ MORE: CBN insists on no devaluation, threatens to sanction those responsible for false speculations

Meanwhile, data obtained from Whale alert, an advanced crypto tracker firm revealed, “the Giveaway scammers pulled off the hack of the year, but only managed to make $58,000 USD so far. Hopefully, the community will take them more seriously now.”

🚓 🚓 🚓 The Giveaway scammers pulled off the hack of the year, but only managed to make $58,000 USD so far. Hopefully the community will take them more seriously now.https://t.co/PkuJHgrbpe

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 15, 2020

However, dealing with cryptos, the use of cold wallets or a proprietary smartphone is recommended. These are specifically designed tools to keep your BTCs from falling into the hands of hackers on the internet.