Germany laptop sold on e-bay has been found with vital info about Germany army

It is important that when an IT asset is disposed of, all sensitive information is destroyed for obvious purposes. However, there are times when an error may occur due to negligence leaking critical data in the process.
One such incident occurred a few days ago when a German military laptop was sold on eBay for just €90 inclusive of the shipping cost. Purchased by a firm named G Data which specializes in cybersecurity, they reported the entire incident in a company blog post on 16 March.

The computer, a product of Roda featured a 128 MB RAM and was running on Windows 2000 & an Intel Pentium III processor. When dug further, it turns out that the laptop contained sensitive information including military secrets.
Here is a photo of the laptop that was being sold on eBay:

Image credit: G Data
Identified to be originating from Bundeswehr – the German army – an administrator program was found on it called MODIS which had “GUEST” as its username already entered.
Trying “Guest” in the password field as well yielded fruit as the program logged in granting access. This led the researchers to find details of a tank equipped with an anti-aircraft system known as Ocelot. Additional information on its schematics, maintenance and operations were also available.

Image of the tank: G Data
As for how they knew it was sensitive is not only because of the nature of what was revealed to them but also the fact that “At the top of every page of the TDv you can see a confidentiality note: VS grade: only for official use” as described by the researchers.
Regardless, it is satisfactory to know that all of these details did not create any significant security risks as the instructions surrounding the tank were not usable by anyone but the German army itself due to only them possessing the specific tank at hand.
Malicious actors though may use the information as an edge in possible future attacks either on a cyber or physical level. In addition to this, Microsoft Outlook was found to be installed as well but logged out with no other data on the computer.
To conclude, leaving a complete program by mistake is one thing but many also fail to properly delete their files permanently when selling their computers or smartphones. For instance, according to a recent stud y done by the University of Hertfordshire, it has been found that among the 100 second-hand phones purchased by the firm on eBay specifically for the study between January and June in 2018, 17% of them contained the previous owner’s personal data.
To avoid making such errors, it is advised that one either remove/destroy their hard drive or use a professional program that can overwrite the disk leaving no room for recovery which may be possible otherwise.

The desert locust, dubbed “the most destructive migratory pest in the world” by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Locust Watch

As the world continues to combat COVID-19 novel coronavirus, millions in Africa and the Middle East are expected to also be hit with the ever-worsening desert locust crisis, which experts say has the ability to grow at an unprecedented rate due to favorable breeding conditions triggered by climate change.
The desert locust, dubbed “the most destructive migratory pest in the world” by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Locust Watch , is positioned to wreak havoc on the food security of millions of people after recently disrupting the lives of individuals in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.
Keith Cressman, senior locust forecasting expert for the FAO, told The Guardian this week that while the desert locust swarms should be decreasing in the foreseeable future as they historically have, climate change has created a new normal that endangers the food security of some 25 million people.
The FAO official explained that desert locust populations begin to expand as a response to moist conditions and continue to thrive in areas that are plentiful in vegetation. He noted that it was May 2018’s Cyclone Mekunu that created an ideal environment in the desert between Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen for the desert locust, which can eat roughly the equivalent of its own mass in fresh food a day.

LOCUST WATCH/UN FAO
Desert Locust plagues can develop in a recession area that extends from West Africa to India; an area equivalent to about 16 million square km. Scattered solitarious locusts breed on winter, spring and summer rains that fall sporadically in this area. If heavy rains fall in successive seasonal breeding areas, the locusts will gregarize and, unless prevented by control, drought or migration to unsuitable habitats, plagues can form.
“Just about when those conditions are drying out and the breeding is coming to an end, a second cyclone came to the area,” Cressman said. “That allowed the conditions to continue to be favorable and another generation of breeding, so instead of increasing 400-fold, they increased 8,000-fold.”
Cyclone Sagar, the strongest recorded cyclone to hit Somalia, came about just days prior to Mekunu, and both were followed by Cyclone Luban mere months later in October 2018.
“Usually a cyclone brings favorable conditions for about six months, and then the habitat dries out, and so it’s not favourable for reproduction, and they die and migrate,” the FAO official explained about the insects.
However, warmer seas from climate change bring about an increase in cyclones and subsequent rainfall that create conditions conducive to desert locust breeding. The FAO highlights that “moist sandy or sandy/clay soil” is prime breeding ground for the insects.
“This analogous forecasting methodology used to work pretty good up until five years ago, and it’s just not working very well any more at all because of the rainfall, the timing, the distribution. It’s very different,” Cressman confessed.
According to current Locust Watch reporting , a total of 10 countries have seen substantial desert locust swarms recently: Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen, Iran, Sudan, Eritrea, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Oman.
“The situation remains extremely alarming in the Horn of Africa, specifically Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia where widespread breeding is in progress and new swarms are starting to form,” the FAO stressed.
The UN organization filed an appeal in February which called for $138 million in funding to provide aid to countries impacted by the ravenous desert locusts. As of a March 16 news release , a total of $105 million has been pledged.

Jack ma of Alibaba and his foundation has offered help of Corona virus test kits to Rwanda!!! Let us pray hard that this disease gets of the poor country

A week of tension between Zambian and Congolese naval forces on the border of Moliro

Tension has been observed for a week between the Zambian and Congolese naval forces on the border of Moliro, 400 km in Moba territory southeast of Kalemie (Tanganyika). According to local sources, this tension was caused by the tracking of Congolese fishermen who use prohibited mesh nets. The Tanganyika provincial government has just dispatched the provincial interior minister to Zambia.
According to a witness, Congolese fishermen hunted in Moba territory have found refuge in Zambia to carry out their fishing activities on Lake Tanganyika, which shares the two countries.
“The Zambian soldiers came to Kibanga-Zambia to tell the fishermen to return to the Congo. To return to the Congo, the fishermen are afraid of the Congolese soldiers who are in Kibanga-Congo. Zambian soldiers took speedboats from Zambia to Kibanga-Congo. They wanted to force the Congolese soldiers out by force; they stole the Congolese flag. They started to confront each other, "he said.
MPP Jean Manda says the problem has never been resolved for several years.
"Can a foreign force easily enter our country and take the insignia of the country, the flag? This is very serious. We never managed to solve the Kapingu problem, on the Moliro side in Moba. The population never returned several years ago because the Zambian army intervened. Who are we ? "He wonders.
The provincial interior minister arrived in the Zambian capital Lusaka last Thursday for peace talks between the two Zambian and Congolese territories

Ugandan,Ministry of healthy clarification on covid 19 virus

We need UPDF at Entebbe airport!!!! We are tired of these goons who do not love uganda

We need updf in Entebbe ASAP. Entebbe is becoming susceptible to foreigners from high risky countries affected by covid19. If this is not done quickly, Entebbe could turn into an epicenter of the Wuhan virus. Ruth Achieng is doing a great job but she's needs surport. The Chinese used their military to manage stiuations that wu'd compromise their efforts and now they are wining the war over covid19.

And these extortionist will be the ones to start blaming the gorvenment!!!!

What Telecom companies are saying about Corona virus