July 22, 2021

UL Collaborates with WIZZIT Digital to Advance Retail Payments in Sub-Saharan Africa with Launch of a SoftPOS with PIN Mobile Payment Solution

UL and WIZZIT Digital help speed deployment of contactless payments to help drive financial inclusion and empower merchants of all sizes realize their ambitions.

JOHANNESBURG, July 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — UL, the global safety science leader, has announced that WIZZIT Digital, a digital payments company, has launched a Tap2Pay software point-of-sale (SoftPOS) solution with personal identification number (PIN) entry support. This solution transforms commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices into point-of-sale (POS) payment terminals. Tap2Pay is the first SoftPOS solution developed in South Africa that supports PIN entry and is recognized by Visa and Mastercard. WIZZIT Digital has now gone live with an initial launch customer, one of the largest Pan-African commercial banks.

UL has announced that WIZZIT Digital has launched a Tap2Pay software point-of-sale (SoftPOS) solution with personal identification number (PIN) entry support. This solution transforms commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices into point-of-sale (POS) payment terminals. Tap2Pay is the first SoftPOS solution developed in South Africa that supports PIN entry and is recognized by Visa and Mastercard.

To navigate the complexities of bringing a SoftPOS solution to market, UL supported the Tap2Pay solution from development to marketplace entry. In the initial stages, UL provided advisory services to help WIZZIT Digital navigate the payments regulatory landscape and meet the payment schemes’ requirements. When Tap2Pay was ready for functional testing, UL tested it with a range of scheme-accredited tools to provide feedback on potential issues. Following debugging and troubleshooting, UL provided functional testing services and helped WIZZIT Digital gain Visa pilot type approval. After functional approval, UL’s security laboratories evaluated the solution for Mastercard’s and Visa’s security pilot programs. These tests and evaluations against scheme requirements allowed WIZZIT to bring the solution to market.

UL evaluation confirmed that the Tap2Pay solution met key security requirements before entering the marketplace. This included helping to affirm the security of payment data obtained through a near-field communications (NFC) interface and a contactless kernel of the COTS device. The solution’s security mechanisms, controls and mitigations protect the consumer’s account data and other assets.

Tap2Pay enters the market at a time when demand for contactless payment solutions is increasing. According to Deloitte, the COVID-19 pandemic has made the need for digitizing payments more critical than ever. However, many emerging markets are facing card acceptance challenges. Deloitte also noted that in South Africa approximately 90% of the 100,000 nationwide shops in the informal sector only accept cash. To meet customer demand and increase card acceptance by the smaller business market, including merchants in rural areas, needs an affordable solution.

Jako Fritz, principal security adviser at UL, said, “SoftPOS is an entirely new approach to digital payments lowering the barrier of entry for merchants to accept contactless card transactions. Cloud computing, as well as the Europay, MasterCard and Visa protocol, allows the shift from traditional physically secure POS to software-based COTS transaction processing. These solutions will help micro and small business owners and merchants around the world meet the demands of an increasingly cashless society more securely with minimal investment.”

Explaining how Tap2Pay addresses an unmet market need, Brian Richardson, CEO and co-founder of WIZZIT Digital, said, “For almost two decades, we have been working with banks and financial institutions in emerging markets, including many countries in Africa. Our experience has taught us two things. Firstly, consumers and banks want the protection of a PIN when conducting contactless transactions. With cyberfraud on the rise, a PIN offers a universally accepted layer of security that people trust. Secondly, traditional cashless payment solutions are too expensive for micro and small merchants.

“For smaller merchants, the initial investment in terminals and the ongoing maintenance costs are simply too high. Tap2Pay SoftPos with PIN removes this barrier, enabling merchants of any size to accept cashless payments. This will ultimately help them attract more customers, including those who don’t want to pay cash for goods and services, for a fraction of the cost,” said Richardson.

About UL
UL is the global safety science leader. We deliver testing, inspection and certification (TIC), training and advisory services, risk management solutions and essential business insights to help our customers, based in more than 100 countries, achieve their safety, security and sustainability goals. Our deep knowledge of products and intelligence across supply chains make us the partner of choice for customers with complex challenges. Discover more at UL.com.

For information about Standards development and other nonprofit activities, visit UL.org.

Press contacts:
Steven Brewster
UL
ULNews@UL.com
+1.847.664.8425

Christina Bostock
IHC
christina@ih-c.com
971.55.887.3054

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July 22, 2021

Thousands of Websites Go Down in Global Outage

Thousands of websites around the world were unreachable Thursday in what appears to have been a problem with a widely used content distribution network.

Akamai, said on its website that it was experiencing “an emerging issue with its Edge DNS service.” Later, the company said the issues had been resolved.

“We have implemented a fix for this issue, and based on current observations, the service is resuming normal operations,” Akamai tweeted. “We will continue to monitor to ensure that the impact has been fully mitigated.”

DNS, or Domain Name System, is a directory that links domain names with machine readable internet protocol addresses.

Some of the larger websites impacted included Delta Air Lines, British Airways, Capital One, GoDaddy, Vanguard, UPS, LastPass, AT&T and Costco.

Some services were already starting to return as Delta reported its online services were back up, according to CNBC.

What caused the outage remains unknown.

Source: Voice of America

July 22, 2021

Guinea Reverses Decision to Pull Out of Tokyo Olympics

The West African country of Guinea has reversed an earlier decision to pull out of the Olympics and will send a delegation of five athletes to the Tokyo Games.

Minister of Sports Sanoussy Bantama Sow made the announcement Thursday after national and international outcries that followed an earlier declaration that Guinea would not send athletes to Tokyo, blaming the coronavirus and its variants.

“The Minister of State, Minister of Sports has the true pleasure of informing the people of Guinea and the whole sports family, that the government, after obtaining guarantees from the health authorities, agrees to the participation of our athletes in the 32nd Olympics in Tokyo,” the minister said in a statement.

Guinea had announced late Wednesday that it was canceling its participation to protect the health of its athletes.

Only days before the statement, Guinean Olympic committee secretary general Ben Daouda Nassoko had told The Associated Press that funds had been released for the delegation to go to Tokyo.

Fatoumata Yarie Camara, a freestyle wrestler, was one of the five athletes affected by the decision.

She confirmed, through tears of joy, that she would be departing for Tokyo. She had earlier questioned the decision to pull out.

“The question I ask myself is why has Guinea decided not to participate in the Olympic Games on the grounds of coronavirus when the organizing country like Japan hasn’t canceled these Games because of this sickness,” she told the AP. “Why? That’s what I ask myself and I still can’t find an answer.”

The other Guinean athletes are swimmers Mamadou Tahirou Bah and Fatoumata Lamarana Toure, 100-meter runner Aissata Deen Conte and judo competitor Mamadou Samba Bah.

Guinea has participated in the Olympics 11 times but has never won a medal. North Korea is the only country to pull out of the Tokyo Olympics, also citing concerns related to COVID-19.

Source: Voice of America

July 22, 2021

RISING CORONAVIRUS CASES FUEL RESURGENCE FEARS AS BIDEN RAMPS UP VACCINATION PUSH

Swiftly rising coronavirus cases across the United States and abroad fueled fears of a pandemic resurgence on Monday and sent shockwaves through stock markets as the highly contagious Delta variant appeared to be taking hold.

Many of the new outbreaks were in parts of the country where COVID-19 vaccinations have lagged, prompting political leaders to ramp up pressure on reluctant Americans to get the inoculations.

President Joe Biden, citing higher rates of COVID-19 in states with low vaccination rates, said during a speech that the nation’s economic recovery hinged on getting better at controlling the pandemic. (Graphic on U.S. cases)

“So please, please get vaccinated,” Biden pleaded. “Get vaccinated now.”

A federal judge on Monday ruled that Indiana University could require students to be vaccinated, rejecting claims in a lawsuit the mandate violated their rights under the U.S. Constitution.

The ruling could set a precedent for similar vaccination orders in schools and businesses. Attorneys for the plaintiffs have said they would appeal to a higher court.

Also on Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said fully vaccinated Americans could cross the border for the first time in 16-months from Aug. 9, easing a travel ban that many business owners complained was crippling them.

Vaccines and especially mandatory shots are deeply controversial among conservatives.

WALL STREET SELLOFF

The average number of daily new COVID-19 cases in the United States has tripled in the past 30 days, according to an analysis of Reuters data, climbing to 32,136 on Sunday.

The average number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has also risen 21% over the past 30 days to over 19,000, according to the same Reuters analysis. Deaths, which can lag behind other indicators, rose 25% last week to an average of 250 per day.

Wall Street saw a broad selloff of stocks as investors worried that the latest outbreaks could prompt state and local officials to impose new lockdowns and business closures.

Millions of Americans were thrown out of work and many small businesses were forced out of business due to nationwide clampdowns during 2020.

Already Los Angeles County has ordered residents to wear masks indoors again following a surge in cases across Southern California.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference on Monday that the city had no plans to reimpose mask mandates despite a rise in cases. The mayor said he would redouble vaccination efforts.

Arkansas has been especially hard hit by the resurgent virus. All but two of the state’s 75 counties have substantial or high levels of transmission, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Delta variant is responsible for 90% of current new cases in Utah’s Salt Lake County, state epidemiology manager Ilene Risk said.

To combat the rising infections, the county has enlisted faith leaders and doctors to persuade the roughly 40% of eligible people who are not fully vaccinated to accept the shots, she said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday released updated recommendations for schools that included mask-wearing for everyone over the age of 2, regardless of vaccination status.

Earlier this month, the CDC updated its own guidance for schools in an effort to help reopen in the fall, recommending masks indoors for everyone not fully vaccinated, among other guidelines.

Source: Angola Press News Agency