Nearly 55 million face hunger in West and Central Africa

UN agencies say double-digit inflation and stagnating local production are major drivers of the hunger crisis in Africa.

Global Affairs

2024 04 12T140736Z 1 LYNXNPEK3B0KX RTROPTP 4 NIGERIA INFLATION Scaled — FILE PHOTO: A woman receives a bag of food from the government during the distribution of food items by the government to cushion the high cost of living in Abuja, Nigeria, September 20, 2022. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde/File Photo

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Paolo Natale

Front of mind

From West Africa to Latin America: Why the Global South is ground zero for Bots-as-a-Service

With banks, governments and small businesses under fire, Bots-as-a-Service is exposing the Global South’s digital vulnerabilities.

Cybercrime is no longer the domain of elite hackers working behind closed doors. Today, it has become an open marketplace where criminals can simply rent the tools they need. Known as Bots-as-a-Service (BaaS), this trend is hitting the Global South hardest, turning countries in Africa and Latin America into both prime targets and unwilling enablers of global cybercrime.

The Deepfake Dilemma: Can technology and law catch up with AI fakes?

Detection tools are flawed, regulation lags behind, and platforms evade responsibility. Dr Áine MacDermott argues only a mix of smarter tech, stronger laws and human-centred defences can counter the deepfake threat.

A familiar face on a video call. A trusted voice giving instructions. A social media post quoting a senior executive. Increasingly, these may not be real at all. Thanks to artificial intelligence, deepfakes, convincing but fabricated videos, images and audio, are spreading fast, and their consequences are serious. Dr Áine MacDermott, Senior Lecturer in Cyber Security and Digital Forensics at Liverpool John Moores University, warns that organisations and governments must act now.