Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 40 | Page 14

NEWS Nutanix partners with Udacity to offer hybrid cloud nanodegree programme Nutanix, a leader in enterprise cloud computing, has announced a partnership with Udacity, the global online learning platform, resulting in a new hybrid cloud nanodegree programme. This programme will enhance learning opportunities in the emerging cloud technologies market that are essential for organisations to uplevel their IT infrastructure. As part of the collaboration, Nutanix will also sponsor 5,000 scholarships to help IT professionals advance their knowledge with this initiative. As more services move to the cloud, IT teams require the knowledge and expertise it takes to properly manage these infrastructures that increasingly stretch across on-premises and public cloud in a hybrid model. Although hybrid cloud technology continues to grow and evolve, educational opportunities in this field remain at a standstill. To fill this educational gap, Udacity and Nutanix have collaborated closely to develop a nanodegree programme that will advance the knowledge of seasoned IT professionals. To strengthen professional development in this space, the nanodegree programme will cover modern private cloud infrastructure and the design of hybrid application deployment. Wendy M Pfeiffer, CIO at Nutanix Udacity is opening applications to the Nutanix hybrid cloud scholarship programme. For the first phase of the scholarship programme, Udacity will select 5,000 applicants to participate in the hybrid cloud fundamentals course. From those 5,000 students, 500 high-performing students will be awarded a full scholarship to the hybrid cloud nanodegree programme. ////////////////// Coronavirus-related phishing email attacks up 600% KnowBe4, a provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, revealed the results of its Q1 2020 top-clicked phishing report. The results found that phishing email attacks relating to COVID-19 were up 600% in Q1 2020. Covering the entire first quarter, simulated phishing tests with an urgent message to check passwords immediately was most popular at 45%. Following this was a Coronavirus-related message as the second most popular at 10%. Social media messages are another area of concern when it comes to phishing. Within the same report, KnowBe4’s topclicked social media email subjects reveal new login alerts, password resets and someone may have accessed your account messages are coming onto the radar. “The bad guys are opportunists and they will use every chance they get to take advantage of people’s heightened emotions during crisis situations such as this one by trying to entice them to click on a malicious link or download an attachment laced with malware,” said Stu Sjouwerman, CEO, KnowBe4. “It’s no surprise that we’re seeing an explosion of phishing attacks related to the Coronavirus because people are actively seeking more information about it. End users should be especially careful with any email they receive related to COVID-19 and immediately report suspicious-looking emails to their IT department.” 14 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com