Cori Kauk, a former Bremerton resident and Olympic College grad, has returned to the city to lead the service provider.

New Foodline director focused on expansion with new space, programs, community relations

A shopper looks at a huge pile of durian along with farming tools on display at the 2023 Agrilink, Foodline, Aqualinlik Fair at the World Trade Center in Pasay City. Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez (center) administers the oath to Nueva Ecija Governor Aurelio Umali as a new Lakas-CMD member...

Durian bounty

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Ferndale Foods Australia has announced its $20 million investment in a state-of-the-art food manufacturing facility in Ballarat.

Ferndale Foods invests $20 million in healthy snack manufacturing

Ferndale Foods Australia is investing A$20m ($13.1m) in a new manufacturing facility to meet the growing demand for better-for-you bars and snacks. Once operational, the FoodLine Australia facility, in Ballarat, Victoria, will have the capacity to manufacture 180 million bars annually, Ferndale Foods Australia said.

Australia’s Ferndale Foods invests in bar facility to meet better-for-you demand

Ferndale Foods Australia is investing A$20m ($13.1m) in a new manufacturing facility to meet the growing demand for better-for-you bars.

Ferndale has invested $20m in a state-of-the-art food manufacturing facility in Ballarat, to meet the demand for better-for-you snacks.

Ferndale invests $20 million in new manufacturing facility

FOODLINE

foodline

THE PINE-PROCESSIONARY

Tarzan and the Ant Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . CHAPTER XV Tarzan and the Ant Men Chapter XV Through several chambers and corridors they were conducted toward the center of the dome on the same level as the chamber in which they had left the king and the walmak until finally they were thrust into a small chamber and a heavy door slammed and barred behind them. There was no candle in the chamber. A faint light, however, relieved the darkness so that the interior of the room was discernible. The chamber contained two benches and a table—that was all. The light which faintly illuminated it entered through a narrow embrasure which was heavily barred, but it was evidently daylight. "We are alone," whispered Komodoflorensal, "and at last we can converse; but we must be cautious," he added. "'Trust not too far the loyalty of even the stones of your chamber!'" he quoted. "Where are we?" asked Tarzan. "You are more familiar with Minunian dwellings than I." "We are upon the highest level of the Royal Dome of Elkomoelhago," replied the prince. "With no such informality does a king visit the other domes of his city. You may rest assured that this is Elkomoelhago's. We are in one of the innermost chambers, next the central shaft that pierces the dome from its lowest level to its roof. For this reason we do not need a candle to support life—we will obtain sufficient air through this embrasure. And now, tell me what happened within the room with Elkomoelhago and Zoanthrohago." [Pg 231] "I discovered how they reduced my stature," replied Tarzan, "and, furthermore, that at almost any time I may regain my full size—an occurrence that may eventuate from three to thirty-nine moons after the date of my reduction. Even Zoanthrohago cannot determine when this thing will happen." "Let us hope that it does not occur while you are in this small chamber," exclaimed Komodoflorensal. "I would have a devil of a time getting out," agreed Tarzan. "You would never get out," his friend assured him. "While you might, before your reduction, have crawled through some of the larger corridors upon the first level, or even upon many of the lower levels, you could not squeeze into the smaller corridors of the upper levels, which are reduced in size as the necessity for direct supports for the roof increase as we approach the apex of the dome." "Then it behooves me to get out of here as quickly as possible," said Tarzan. [Pg 232] Komodoflorensal shook his head. "Hope is a beautiful thing, my friend," he said, "but if you were a Minunian you would know that under such circumstances as we find ourselves it is a waste of mental energy. Look at these bars," and he walked to the window and shook the heavy irons that spanned the embrasure. "Think you that you could negotiate these?" "I haven't examined them," replied the ape-man, "but I shall never give up hope of escaping; that your people do is doubtless the principal reason that they remain forever in bondage. You are too much a fatalist, Komodoflorensal." As he spoke Tarzan crossed the room and standing at the prince's side took hold of the bars at the window. "They do not seem over-heavy," he remarked, and at the same time exerted pressure upon them. They bent! Tarzan was interested now and Komodoflorensal, as well. The ape-man threw all his strength and weight into the succeeding effort with the result that two bars, bent almost double, were torn from their setting. Komodoflorensal gazed at him in astonishment. "Zoanthrohago reduced your size, but left you with your former physical prowess," he cried. "In no other way can it be accounted for," replied Tarzan, who now, one by one, was removing the remaining bars from the window embrasure. He straightened one of the shorter ones and handed it to Komodoflorensal. "This will make a good weapon," he said, "if we are forced to fight for our liberty," and then he straightened another for himself. [Pg 233] The Trohandalmakusian gazed at him in wonder. "And you intend," he demanded, "to defy a city of four hundred and eighty thousand people, armed only with a bit of iron rod?" "And my wits," added Tarzan. "You will need them," said the prince. "And I shall use them," Tarzan assured him. "When shall you start?" asked Komodoflorensal, chaffingly. "Tonight, tomorrow, next moon—who knows?" replied the ape-man. "Conditions must be ripe. All the time I shall be watching and planning. In that sense I started to escape the instant I regained consciousness and knew that I was a prisoner." Komodoflorensal shook his head. "You have no faith in me?" demanded Tarzan. "That is precisely what I have—faith," replied Komodoflorensal. "My judgment tells me that you cannot succeed and yet I shall cast my lot with you, hoping for success, yes, believing in success. If that is not faith I do not know what it might be called." The ape-man smiled. He seldom, if ever, laughed aloud. "Let us commence," he said. "First we will arrange these rods so that they will have the appearance, from the doorway, of not having been disturbed, for I take it we shall have an occasional visitor. Some one will bring us food, at least, and whoever comes must suspect nothing." [Pg 234] Together they arranged the rods so that they might be quickly removed and as quickly replaced. By that time it was getting quite dark within the chamber. Shortly after they had finished with the rods their door opened and two warriors, lighting their way with candles, appeared escorting a slave who bore food in bucketlike receptacles and water in bottles made of glazed pottery. As they were going away again, after depositing the food and drink just inside the doorway, taking their candles with them, Komodoflorensal addressed them. "We are without candles, warrior," he said to the nearer. "Will you not leave us one of yours?" "You need no candle in this chamber," replied the man. "One night in darkness will do you good, and tomorrow you return to the quarry. Zoanthrohago is done with you. In the quarry you will have plenty of candles," and he passed out of the chamber, closing the door behind him. The two slaves heard the heavy bolt shot into place upon the opposite side of the door. It was very dark now. With difficulty they found the receptacles containing the food and water. [Pg 235] "Well?" inquired Komodoflorensal, dipping into one of the food jars. "Do you think it is going to be so easy now, when tomorrow you will be back in the quarry perhaps five hundred huals below ground?" "But I shall not be," replied Tarzan, "and neither shall you." "Why not?" asked the prince. "Because, since they expect to remove us to the quarries tomorrow, it follows that we must escape tonight," explained Tarzan. Komodoflorensal only laughed. When Tarzan had eaten his fill he arose and walked to the window, where he removed the bars and, taking the one that he had selected for himself, crawled through the passage that led to the opposite end of the embrasure, for even so close to the apex of the dome the wall was quite thick, perhaps ten huals. The hual, which is about three inches in length by our standards, constitutes the Minunian basic unit of measure, corresponding most closely to our foot. At this high level the embrasure was much smaller than those opening at lower levels, practically all of which were of sufficient size to permit a warrior to walk erect within them; but here Tarzan was forced to crawl upon all fours. At the far end he found himself looking out into a black void above which the stars were shining and about the sides of which were dotted vague reflections of inner lights, marking the lighted chambers within the dome. Above him it was but a short distance to the apex of the dome, below was a sheer drop of four hundred huals. [Pg 236] Tarzan, having seen all that could be seen from the mouth of the embrasure, returned to the chamber. "How far is it, Komodoflorensal," he asked, "from the floor of this embrasure to the roof of the dome?" "Twelve huals, perhaps," replied the Trohanadalmakusian. Tarzan took the longest of the bars from the embrasure and measured it as best he could. "Too far," he said. "What is too far?" demanded Komodoflorensal. "The roof," explained Tarzan. "What difference does it make where the roof is—you did not expect to escape by way of the roof of the dome, did you?" "Most certainly—had it been accessible," replied the ape-man; "but now we shall have to go by way of the shaft, which will mean crossing entirely through the dome from the interior shaft to the outer periphery. The other route would have entailed less danger of detection." Komodoflorensal laughed aloud. "You seem to think that to escape a Minunian city it is only necessary to walk out and away. It cannot be done. What of the sentries? What of the outer patrols? You would be discovered before you were halfway down the outside of the dome, provided that you could get that far without falling to your death." [Pg 237] "Then perhaps the shaft would be safer," said Tarzan. "There would be less likelihood of discovery before we reached the bottom, for from what I could see it is as dark as pitch in the shaft." "Clamber down the inside of the shaft!" exclaimed Komodoflorensal. "You are mad! You could not clamber from this level to the next without falling, and it must be a full four hundred huals to the bottom." "Wait!" Tarzan admonished him. Komodoflorensal could hear his companion moving around in the dark chamber. He heard the scraping of metal on stone and presently he heard a pounding, not loud, yet heavy. "What are you doing?" he asked. "Wait!" said Tarzan. And Komodoflorensal waited, wondering. It was Tarzan who spoke next. "Could you find the chamber in which Talaskar is confined in the quarry?" he asked. "Why?" demanded the prince. "We are going after her," explained Tarzan. "We promised that we would not leave without her." "I can find it," said Komodoflorensal, rather sullenly Tarzan thought. [Pg 238] For some time the ape-man worked on in silence, except for the muffled pounding and the scraping of iron on stone, or of iron on iron. "Do you know every one in Trohanadalmakus?" Tarzan asked, suddenly. "Why, no," replied Komodoflorensal. "There are a million souls, including all the slaves. I could not know them all." "Did you know by sight all those that dwelt in the royal dome?" continued the ape-man. "No, not even those who lived in the royal dome," replied the Trohanadalmakusian; "though doubtless I knew practically all of the nobles, and the warrior class by sight if not by name." "Did any one?" asked Tarzan. "I doubt it," was the reply. "Good!" exclaimed Tarzan. Again there was a silence, broken again by the Englishman. "Can a warrior go anywhere without question in any dome of his own city?" he inquired. "Anywhere, under ordinary circumstances, except into the king's dome, in daytime." "One could not go about at night, then?" asked Tarzan. "No," replied his companion. "By day, might a warrior go and come in the quarries as he pleased?" "If he appeared to be employed he would not be questioned, ordinarily." [Pg 239] Tarzan worked a little longer in silence. "Come!" he said presently; "we are ready to go." "I shall go with you," said Komodoflorensal, "because I like you and because I think it would be better to be dead than a slave. At least we shall have some pleasure out of what remains to us of life, even though it be not a long life." "I think we shall have some pleasure, my friend," replied Zuanthrol. "We may not escape; but, like you, I should rather die now than remain a slave for life. I have chosen tonight for our first step toward freedom, because I realize that once returned to the quarry our chances for a successful break for liberty will be reduced to almost nothing, and tonight is our only night above ground." "How do you propose that we escape from this chamber?" "By way of the central shaft," replied Tarzan; "but first tell me, may a white-tunicked slave enter the quarries freely by day?" Komodoflorensal wondered what bearing all these seemingly immaterial questions had upon the problem of their escape; but he answered patiently: "No, white tunics are never seen in the quarries." "Have you the iron bar I straightened for you?" [Pg 240] "Yes." "Then follow me through the embrasure. Bring the other rods that I shall leave in the opening. I will carry the bulk of them. Come!" Komodoflorensal heard Tarzan crawling into the embrasure, the iron rods that he carried breaking the silence of the little chamber. Then he followed. In the mouth of the embrasure he found the rods that Tarzan had left for him to carry. There were four rods, the ends of each bent into hooks. It had been upon this work that Tarzan had been engaged in the darkness—Komodoflorensal wondered to what purpose. Presently his further advance was halted by Tarzan's body. "Just a moment," said the ape-man. "I am making a hole in the window ledge. When that is done we shall be ready." A moment later he turned his head back toward his companion. "Pass along the rods," he said. After Komodoflorensal had handed the hooked rods to Tarzan he heard the latter working with them, very quietly, for several minutes, and then he heard him moving his body about in the narrow confines of the embrasure and presently when the ape-man spoke again the Trohanadalmakusian realized that he had turned around and that his head was close to that of his companion. "I shall go first, Komodoflorensal," he said. "Come to the edge of the embrasure and when you hear me whistle once, follow me." [Pg 241] "Where?" asked the prince. "Down the shaft to the first embrasure that will give us foot-hold, and let us pray that there is one directly below this within the next eighteen huals. I have hooked the rods together, the upper end hooked into the hole I made in the ledge, the lower end dangling down a distance of eighteen huals." "Good-bye, my friend," said Komodoflorensal. Tarzan smiled and slipped over the edge of the embrasure. In one hand he carried the rod that he had retained as a weapon, with the other he clung to the window ledge. Below him for eighteen huals dangled the slender ladder of iron hooks, and below this, four hundred huals of pitchy darkness hid the stone flagging of the inner courtyard. Perhaps it roofed the great central throne room of the king, as was true in the royal dome of Adendrohahkis; perhaps it was but an open court. The truth was immaterial if the frail support slipped from the shallow hole in the ledge above, or if one of the hooks straightened under the weight of the ape-man. Now he grasped the upper section of his ladder with the hand that held his improvised weapon, removed the hand from the ledge and grasped the rod again, still lower down. In this way he lowered his body a few inches at a time. He moved very slowly for two reasons, the more important of which was that he feared that any sudden strains upon his series of hooks might straighten one of them and precipitate him into the abyss below; the other was the necessity for silence. It was very dark even this close to the summit of the dome, but that was rather an advantage than otherwise, for it hid his presence from any chance observer who might glance through one of the embrasures in the opposite wall of the shaft. As he descended he felt in both directions for an embrasure, but he was almost at the end of his ladder before he felt himself swing slightly into one. When he had lowered himself still farther and could look into the opening he saw that it was dark, an indication that it did not lead into an inhabited chamber, a fact for which he was thankful. He hoped, too, that the inner end of the embrasure was not barred, nor the door beyond bolted upon the outside. [Pg 242] He whistled once, very low, for Komodoflorensal, and an instant later he felt the movement of the iron ladder that told him his companion had commenced the descent. The embrasure in which he stood was higher than the one they had just quitted, permitting him to stand erect. There he waited for the Trohanadalmakusian who was soon standing upon the ledge beside him. "Whew!" exclaimed the prince, in a whisper. "I should hate to have had to do that in the daytime when I could have seen all the way to the bottom. What next? We have come farther already than ever I dreamed would be possible. Now I am commencing to believe that escape may lie within the realm of possibilities." [Pg 243] "We haven't started yet," Tarzan assured him; "but we are going to now. Come!" Grasping their rude weapons the two walked stealthily the length of the embrasure. There were no bars to impede their progress and they stepped to the floor of the chamber beyond. Very carefully, feeling each step before he planted a foot and with his weapon extended before him, Tarzan groped his way about the chamber, which he found was fairly well filled with casks and bottles, the latter in wooden and wicker cases. Komodoflorensal was directly behind him. "We are in one of the rooms where the nobles charged with enforcing the laws against wine have hidden confiscated liquor," whispered the Trohanadalmakusian. "I have heard much talk concerning the matter since I was made prisoner—the warriors and the slaves, too, seem to talk of nothing else but this and the high taxes. The chances are that the door is heavily barred—they guard these forbidden beverages as never they guarded their gold or jewels." "I have found the passageway leading to the door," whispered Tarzan, "and I can see a light beneath it." [Pg 244] They crept stealthily the length of the passage. Each grasped his weapon more firmly as Tarzan gently tried the latch. It gave! Slowly the ape-man pushed the door ajar. Through the tiny aperture thus opened he could see a portion of the room. Its floor was strewn with gorgeous carpets, thick and soft. That portion of the wall that was revealed to him was hung with heavy fabrics woven in many colors and strange patterns—splendid, barbaric. Directly in the line of his vision the body of a man lay sprawled, face down, upon the floor—a pool of red stained a white rug beneath his head. Tarzan opened the door a little farther, revealing the bodies of three other men. Two lay upon the floor, the third upon a low divan. The scene, gorgeous in its coloring, tragic in its suggestion of mystery and violent death, held the eyes of the ape-man yet a moment longer before he opened the door still wider and leaped quickly to the center of the room, his weapon raised and ready, giving no possible skulking foe behind the door the opportunity to fell him that would have offered had he edged into the room slowly. A quick glance about the apartment showed the bodies of six men that had not been visible from the partially opened door. These were lying in a pile in one corner of the room. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Edgar Rice Burroughs (2020). Tarzan and the Ant Men. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61837/pg61837-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

Through several chambers and corridors

* * Achievement unlocked: With more than ‘4 billion’ in total votes -- almost half the population of earth voted for startups! JUST KIDDING! Some companies had a to accumulating their votes. unique approach In 2021, decided to host to highlight the backbone of the future - tech startups! for the first time in forever (make sure you sing it in Anna’s voice), HackerNoon.com Startups of The Year More than 44,000 startups were nominated all across the globe, spanning over 4,553 cities. That’s.Just.Spiffy! To see who is a winner in each respective city, visit and pick a city. The name at the top of the list is the winner. (Compromised awards are under review.) startups.hackernoon.com The will announce the winners per region in their respective cities. Startups Winners Announcement Series We’d like to take a moment here and thank every single person who cast a vote and every single company, both nominated and not nominated yet this year. Furthermore, we thank you for existing and opening more opportunities for the wonders of the future to come. Even if you don’t win anything today, you’ve won something much more valuable - our hearts <3 Okay, sorry for the long introduction. Below are all the Startups Winners: Startups of the Year (SOTY) in Africa Johannesburg, South Africa With more than 900 votes cast, #SOTY calls.... MiBRAND Thank you for connecting businesses and consumers, great job! Lagos, Nigeria With 836 votes in the bag, let’s give it up for... Goodtalent Thanks for helping tech companies build great engineering teams. Cape Town, South Africa Want to learn more about finance and use that knowledge to make better financial decisions? Look no further. Introducing winner of Startups of The Year, Cape Town: Revix With 527 votes cast, it seems like a lot of people have more money in their pockets thanks to . Revix Mahé, Seychelles With around 515 votes cast, #SOTY summons... DAOLaunch Thank you for bridging the gap between investors and startups. Lusaka And the winner for #SOTY in Lusaka is... ComGrow Thanks to them, people here are getting closer to the reality of the digitization of village banking. Nairobi, Kenya With 252 votes cast, UTU came out top as the Startup of The Year. Thanks for building the trust infrastructure of the internet to help businesses and consumers engage and transact in a more reliable way. Yaoundé Accounting for more than 73% of total votes, CamPay won this award fair and square. Thank you for making sending and receiving payments easier between online merchants. Abuja, Nigeria A proud winner in the prestigious capital of Nigeria, Elesaro deserves all the plaudits it gets. is a suite crowdfunding protocol built on BSC, Reward, Equity, Lending & NFT Marketplace. Congratulations! Elesaro Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania Jamii Africa is the name that will always be engraved on the #SOTY trophy. As a mobile micro-health insurance, Jamii Africa has done a great job for the health sector in Tanzania. Kigali, Rwanda Another #SOTY medal in the bag for none other than …wait for it… BAG Innovation BAG Innovation applies Gamification to offer real-time access to experience-based learning for University students in East Africa. Everybody loves playing games, but using games to learn in school is on another level. Gauteng, South Africa And the award goes to... Planet42 Thanks for democratising mobility by enabling people ignored by banks to get access to a personal vehicle through a car subscription service. Once again, congratulations! Port Harcourt, Nigeria Cryptocurrency is the present and the future, as we’ve all come to know. FLITBASE makes these digital assets more accessible to everyone. #SOTY is proud to add you to our Hall of Fame. Cairo, Egypt With 18 votes won out of the 91 cast, it seems there was fierce competition. Congratulations to... SubsBase for winning Startups of The Year. SubsBase allows businesses to manage their subscribers, automate recurring billings, set pricing plans, and monitor subscription KPIs. Tunis, Tunisia Come one, come all! Witness the greatness of yet another wonderful startup in the #SOTY. Thank you... VYND for providing a fully integrated digital platform to help venue owners better serve their customers and grow their businesses. Stellenbosch, South Africa BankTech connects clients to a payment network where it provides a convenient interface to meet various payments needs. You’ve won #SOTY proudly! Pretoria #SOTY acknowledges... Grays Pharmaceuticals Thank you for all you do. Lekki, Nigeria Middletrust provides reliable escrow services in Africa. Congratulations on winning a #SOTY medal. Addis Ababa Thank you... Hello Solar for consistently accelerating sustainable energy solutions, especially for remote communities. With half of the votes cast, you beat the odds. Accra, Ghana UT Bank Ghana provides various commercial banking services to individuals and companies in Ghana. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of financial services to humankind. #SOTY is proud of all you do. Gîza, Egypt Big congratulations to... HOVO for winning this award. Your on-demand mobile app for ordering trucks is truly appreciated! Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo Congratulations for coming out on top of #SOTY, SillonBlue Technologies As an ICT Consulting and SaaS company, SillonBlue Technologies focuses on software and mobile app development, and data collection. Yaba, Nigeria With more than half of the votes cast, this nominee conquered undisputedly. Let’s give it up for... Kuda a no-fee full-service digital bank making banking affordable for all Africans on the planet. Morocco City Almes provides infrastructure and logistics services. Congratulations on earning a #SOTY medal. Dakar ShopMeAway provides families and businesses with new ways to shop around the world with reduced shipping costs. You deserve the plaudits you’ve received! Casablanca Sheaply provides crowd shipping and crowd shopping solutions. This reduces cost and improves efficiency on shipping and shopping. Congratulations on winning a #SOTY medal. Nguru, Nigeria Accounting for 88% of the votes, TradeBuza wins #SOTY almost flawlessly. TradeBuza is a tech-enabled commodities sourcing platform for commodities aggregators and out-grower schemes. Ikeja, Nigeria PropertyPro Nigeria is now pronounced Startup of the Year in Ikeja. Let’s admit, who doesn’t appreciate a platform built to search for real estate properties? Ibadan, Nigeria No Bank, No Problem! (That’s probably not their motto, by the way) Shield Finders is a fintech and financial service provider to the unbanked. Congratulation on winning most of the votes! 6 October City, Egypt Wuilt is a website builder where you can create your own Arabic website in under 5 minutes. Thank you for making this technology accessible to people. One #SOTY medal for you! Algiers The only nominee who outvoted all others, please give it up for... Yassir Thank you for providing convenient transport services using your app. Enugu In an area that usually suffers from inconsistent electricity, Greenage comes to the rescue with their green cape and spandex suit. Greenage Technologies is a Nigerian startup solving electricity problems in Nigeria using solar energy technology. Congrats, Greenage. Abeokuta, Nigeria A government organization creating opportunities for entrepreneurs and the unemployed - no one deserves the title Startup of The Year better than Ogun Innovate Congratulations! Ariana And the award goes to... E-Stores Factory a web platform that helps rent and manage e-shops for enterprises seeking to sell online. Thank you for making the (not a typo) more friendly! e-cosystem Benin City Health really is wealth. MOBicure provides mobile technology solutions for Africa's biggest health problems. Thank you for all you do. From #SOTY with love <3 Centurion GameZBoost offers white label gaming platforms, including online desktop solutions, fully responsive mobile and social platforms. Thank you for making the world a more fun place! Gaborone Augmenta Cyber Security provides services in cyber security, safe data storage, SCADA security, SAP Security, etc. Congratulations on winning 10/10 of the votes. You rock! Garki There can never be enough medical platforms in the world. Congratulations to... Wella Health an operator of a healthcare technology company intended to provide treatments and medicines for malaria. Thank you for all you do! Lilongwe Yellow is a digital platform enabling informal merchants in Africa. #SOTY welcomes you to its hall of fame. Make yourself at home ;) Luanda Access to finance is important for any company or sector to succeed. And no other company deserves the title Startup of The Year more than Deya the first Angolan and PALOP crowdfunding platform that aims to increase access to financing for social impact causes and entrepreneurs. . 10/10 will recommend Mombasa Life can be hard, and so a little humor helps ease these hardships. Congratulations to this political satire puppet show, The XYZ Show for winning #SOTY. Thanks for putting smiles on our faces. Port Louis Town Bet you’ve never heard of a Smartcup. Thanks to Intellicup that exists now, and therefore earns this startup a #SOTY badge.  Intellicup is a unique high-speed beverage dispensing solution with integrated smart technology. While this cup won’t be able to wake you up in the morning, you have to agree that it’s still pretty impressive. Rabat Atlan Space is a startup building AI to autonomously pilot any fixed-wing drone, to monitor and take measures over very large areas. You deserve the #SOTY medal. Réunion Imagine having the power to do ultrasound scans on your handheld device. OSCULT by Oscadi is a handheld ultrasound imaging device interfaced with the Apple iPad. Congratulations on making it into the #SOTY! Somerset West Winning the award fair and square is Sticitt a cashless payment platform that is also aimed at teaching learners at school the basics of finance. The future of the world would be in good hands when our children know how to adequately manage finances. Thank you for saving the world in advance. Thika Flowers make the world a beautiful place to live in. Wilmar Flowers exports summer flowers grown by small and medium-sized farmers from Kenya. Kudos for making the world beautiful, #SOTY is honored to have you in our Hall of Fame. Kampala, Uganda Yo-Waste Limited is an African startup that provides waste, recycling and “smart city” solutions to businesses and governments. Your #SOTY gold medal shines as much as you do <3 Harare, Zimbabwe The world is becoming more and more digital every day. Thanks to companies like Golix that provide services of digital currencies for people in Africa, the digitization of the world is becoming more robust. Freetown Easy Solar is a distribution company making energy, durable goods and financial services affordable and accessible through pay-as-you-go tech. Thumbs up! Kicukiro FOODLINE specializes in non-genetically-modified grocery farming and production lines. Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! #SOTY Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo Startups Nuru is a renewable and environmental company that specializes in the fields of storage micro-grids and solar energy. After racking up all the votes, #SOTY honors you. Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire Digitech provides a fully integrated and cloud-based InsurTech platform to incumbent insurance companies. You are awesome! Durban Security can never really be enough. We’d like to honor Blue Security the title Startup of The Year, for specializing in the installation and monitoring of intruder detection systems, and in providing armed response services. Ikoyi And the Startup of The year goes to... Winich Farms an Agritech Startup leveraging tech to connect rural farmers to Finance & Market, thus, increasing productivity and cutting post-harvest loss. You rock! Lomé The last recipient of #SOTY in Africa calls for... Gozem a transport technology platform for Francophone West and Central Africa. Thank you for providing a platform for transportation. We are honored to have you! *Winners missing from this list will be added accordingly. More Information If you’re a winner, please answer ! If you’re a reader, participant, just a curious individual, consider answering one of our interviews . this interview here Read the FAQs about or . Startups here here To see all of the winners you may visit , pick any city and view the name that appears at the top. this site If you’re interested in partnering with us, we invite you to look through some of these or reach out to our business department. unique sponsorship options Perhaps creating your very own tickles your fancy or maybe you have a whole new idea for how we can partner! writing contest Thank you to all of our sponsors! We truly appreciate your contribution to the tech world and thus the future! The Startups Awards are sponsored by: , , , , , , , , , , Blockster Brex FreeCodeCamp LaunchDarkly Coil Udacity Udemy Vercel Asia Pacific Transgender Network Bybit Everscale Network This post was written and edited by Kien Dao and Joshua Omale. If you have any questions or concerns or would like to report a discrepancy please email ellen@hackernoon.com.

What are the Top Startups in Africa?

Can you fool Artificial Intelligence? No? Think again. Three years ago, Apple launched IphoneX with cutting-edge facial recognition technology. This advanced AI technique (Face ID) replaced the old fingerprint recognition technology (Touch ID). The latest technology claimed to be more secure and robust. However, shortly after the launch of Face ID, researchers from Vietnam breached it by designing a 3D face mask. Such crafted attacks against ML-based AI systems come under the umbrella of a fascinating research field: adversarial machine learning. This attack against Face ID led to new debates in the field of cybersecurity: How secure are AI systems against adversarial attacks, and whether such attacks are practical in real-world scenarios or not. In this article, we will explore the answers to these questions. We will further explore adversarial machine learning beyond cybersecurity — its application in AI software testing. But first, let’s understand what is adversarial machine learning. What is Adversarial Machine Learning? You are familiar with optical illusions. They play with our minds into seeing things that are not there. In adversarial machine learning, attackers design optical illusions for machine learning algorithms. For example, say an AI system classifies apples and oranges. Now, look at the picture below. You can see that both are images of the same apple. However, the image of the apple on the right is crafted a little differently. An attacker has added a tiny perturbation in this image, making the ML algorithm misclassify it to orange. The human eye cannot see any difference between the left and right apple. However, the AI system is fooled to see it as an orange. Apple vs Adversarial Apple The above illustration is inspired by the panda example given in this by the guru of adversarial machine learning: Ian Goodfellow. This example seems pretty straightforward to understand right? There can be even simpler ways to sabotage AI systems. paper There are also highly sophisticated attacks designed to evade machine learning and artificial intelligence systems. In research, such attacks have proven to sabotage a variety of safety-critical systems, including and . Let’s have a look at them: self-driving cars medical imaging systems Fooling AI: Evasion Attacks Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash In evasion attacks, attackers design adversarial examples that fool the AI model. For example, attackers can target or paint on road signs. self-driving cars by using stickers The sign appears the same to the naked eye; however, a self-driving car may interpret it differently. This may cause deadly accidents. The example of the Face ID breach given at the start of this article is also a type of evasion attack. There can be a variety of evasion attacks — from simple image manipulation to sophisticate white-box attacks. Poisoning AI: Data Poisoning Attacks Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash In poisoning attacks, the threat actor can add incorrect examples in the training data, making a faulty, mutant model. The examples apparently seem harmless, and such attacks are usually launched on self-learning or reinforcement learning systems. For example, back in 2016, an interactive, self-learning ! chatbot Tay was poisoned (trained) by the users into a racist Nazi Rethinking AI Security and Software Testing Image Source: InvoZone Adversarial machine learning is also being used by software engineers to test the robustness of AI systems. The researchers are combining to generate and evaluate the test data. software testing techniques with adversarial machine learning Humans fight with the idea that whether seeing is believing or believing is seeing. In the case of ML-based AI, learning is seeing and learning is believing. It is quite tricky how most of the complex AI systems learn. The key to secure and robust AI systems is thorough testing. Also published here .

Adversarial Machine Learning and Its Role in Fooling AI

Lessons and take aways from building a web app from start to finish As a developer, sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the fervor of l new technologies, tooling, and best practices and forget that at the end of the day software is an ends to a mean of build services and applications that benefit people. earning In this article, I’m going to talk about my wholistic approach to building apps by discussing decisions and lessons I learned while making , a restaurant review app that you can check out . I want to share what I learned from , because I believe the lessons learned from building and deploying a web app from beginning to end have served me tremendous wisdom. design Foodsie here Foodsie Lessons I’ve learned along the way building Foodsie.io: Commit to a plan and stick to it Failure is an option here. If you are not failing, you are not innovating enough — Elon Musk When I started working on Foodsie, before writing a single line of code I had drawn probably at least 5 pages worth of sketches and had written many lists and blocks of text about features, user flows, and r&d. This proved invaluable, because it let me iterate on my ideas quickly and get feedback without having to implement a single thing in code. original ideation sketches It’s a lot cheaper to iterate with pen and paper than it is to iterate with code. Just by writing ideas out and drawing user stories, I was able to flesh out my vision of what Foodsie could be and tailor it to an audience —from the beginning I knew Foodsie would be some sort of restaurant review aggregator. After prototyping on pen and paper, I realized Foodsie would work really well as a platform on which restaurant reviewers (aka ) could write and share restaurant reviews. Foodsies When thoroughly thought out, mock ups translate to code seamlessly. Before getting to building, I found it important to form a brand and identity for my product. One of the things I really take pride in about Foodsie.io is that it looks consistent and cohesive. An app’s identity matters because it reflects the developers confidence in the product and the health of the rest of the app. Foodsie.io’s color scheme (using coolors.io) on the left and app’s index.css on the right Pick a color scheme, a design principle (material / flat / bootstrap), and ideally one to two fonts. These can change over time, but it’s important that if they do change, they change consistently. The goal of all this is to ensure you have some sort of plan that you’re following so you have something to reference if you ever feel lost. This goes a long way, and was a pillar in the success of Foodsie.io. Be opinionated and decisive with your architecture A startup messed up at its foundation cannot be fixed — Peter Thiel In projects I’ve failed, I realize that one my common pitfalls was indecisiveness with architectural decisions. With how fast the software development ecosystem evolves, it’s incredibly easy to start off using a certain set of technologies, only to read a medium article or two and realize that you actually want to try out a different set of technologies. There’s nothing wrong with using a better technology if it brings benefits to the project and your workflow. In fact, a big part of the building process is stepping out of your comfort zone and trying out new things. It’s a problem, however, is if doing so impedes with your progress and motivation to work on the project. One strategy that has helped me not fall into the trap of , was taking the time before beginning to code to thoroughly research and refine my stack. For Foodsie, the technologies I decided on were React, Redux, and CSS Modules. I already knew I wanted to use React and Redux because I absolutely love React + Redux, but I wasn’t sure what styling technology I wanted to use. Before deciding this part of my stack I actually bootstrapped an app with stylish, css-blocks, and CSS Modules before deciding that CSS Modules was the technology that I would go with. tech envy A good architecture will empower you to build quickly and modularly 💯 If you want to check out my tech stack and my project layout, Foodsie is completely open source. You can check out and fork the project . from here on Github Building something you’ll be proud of inside and out What ever good things we build end up building us — Jim Rohn In every application that does anything interesting, there’s always going to be technical decisions that have to be made. The decisions that have to be made are generally a tradeoff decision between getting the job done fast and getting the job done right. In professional settings the right decision isn’t necessarily obvious due to timelines and strict project constraints. But in solo projects it’s almost always a better idea to take the time and figure out the best solution. The reason why is because a project will be most successful if you enjoy building it, and technical debt will strip away the enjoyment of building. If you don’t enjoy the building process and times begin to get rough, it’s going to be hard to build up the motivation to continue working on your project. In creating Foodsie, I’ve made it a ritual to refactor my code in the mornings and build out features in the evenings. This has helped me tremendously in keeping tech debt to minimum because it meant I could implement a technical solution naively in the afternoons, think about the problem over night, then spend the mornings cleaning my slate by finding the best solution. One method I’ve found successful for doing high-level design refactors is to use CSS to add a cyan border to every div: .This helps visually verify that your layout is clean and that there aren’t any hacks or shortcuts being made in the app’s styling. div { border: 1px solid cyan; } border: 1px solid cyan is a great way to identify visually any hacks or short-cuts being made with CSS Another thing I occasionally do is I navigate the DOM tree using chrome dev-tools and manually check for any div-soup. It’s important to ensure your DOM tree is as semantic and as light weight as possible. Doing so benefits users who use screen readers to navigate your webpage, and reduces page load times across the board. On top of that, a light weight DOM tree will also reduce encounters of bugs and side effects relating to html and styling. Ultimately, you want to ensure that your app is thoroughly beautiful inside and out. Having a poor codebase is an easy way to get frustrated and burn out of your project. A clean codebase will serve your project well and make you better developer in the long run. A clean UI reflects a clean codebase and a well executed product Have the mindset of learning in mind I’ve created over 64 projects on Github. Of those, I would say I only saw through at most 6 to the deployment phase. Sometimes you hammer away endlessly on a side project only for some other shiny idea to come along and steal your interest. You might feel guilt for the ever growing pile of unfinished projects you leave in your wake. All I want to say is that this is how great developers are born. Every time you take on a new project you’re trying out new technologies, gaining intuition on new patterns, and pushing your limits. Your building associations and intuitions continuously. And those intuitions carry over to your next project and your next next project. Failure is inconsequential — it even deserves respect. Regardless of whether you complete a project or not, you’re become a better developer by trying. So please, don’t be afraid of starting a project and never be afraid to try, because the worse that can happen is that you learn. Thank you so much for reading! If you want to reach out, I’m on and on . You can also shout me out on any social media: @FermiDirak. Linkedin Github Cheers!

Learning by Doing: The designing and building of Foodsie.io

The Alibaba Tech Team has developed a robot that uses visual recognition technology to serve at the staff canteen Liu Yongkai(刘永凯) is a Senior Algorithm Engineer at Alibaba. Here is his story: My name is Liu Yongkai. I love two things: food and programming. One of my favorite dishes is (lamb spine hotpot) It’s a soupy dish cooked with the meat from the spine of a lamb. Once I was in the hospital for an examination when they showed me the scan of my spine. Instead of checking the scan to see what kind of shape my spine was in, I started daydreaming about lamb spine hotpot. yang xiezi . In September 2017, my love for food and programming inspired me to design a cashier robot with a group of friends. I wanted to find a way to make service at the Alibaba canteen faster. Thanks to friends and programming skills, I was able to do just that. Now, our robot could end up changing how 60,000 Alibaba employees pay for their daily meals. Inspiration strikes in the lunch queue The day I came up with the cashier robot idea, I had a big appetite, and my plate was fully loaded. The cashier was new to her job and it took her nearly 5 minutes to add up the cost of my meal. Standing there with my stomach rumbling, I started thinking about how we could make payment faster. That was when the idea flashed across my mind: Why don’t we use visual recognition technology to calculate our meal prices? At the time I was part of the Alibaba security team, which specializes in visual recognition technology. In simple terms, this technology shows robots massive amounts of pictures to teach them to recognize objects. The robots also learn to react to the pictures in certain ways according to instructions. Visual recognition technology was first used at Alibaba for a different purpose: deleting pornography. When questionable photos appeared on a network, the robot could quickly identify and delete the pornographic images. Unmanned supermarkets also use visual recognition technology. Without cashiers, robots can scan shopping baskets and tell which items are being purchased. With the technology already in place, I thought, all we needed to do was change the code, and a machine could be taught to identify steamed lamb, braised duck, roasted chicken, and pork stomach. If the machine also knew the price of each dish, meal prices could be calculated just by scanning plates, and we could all sit down to eat much faster. How the Cashier Robot was born I love two things: food and programming. Here was a food problem that could be solved with programming. I was so excited that even a year’s supply of lamb spine hotpot couldn’t have made me much happier. My enthusiasm bubbled over and I had soon recruited a small team to work with. The equipment we used was makeshift. I disassembled my home desk lamp, took its stand and attached a webcam. The webcam was connected to a cellphone equipped with a visual recognition program. We used a computer cooling pad as the base for the whole setup. We had a person responsible for testing, for going to the canteen to collect food, for photographing food, writing code, and teaching the robot to identify what twice-cooked pork was, what shredded pork in salted fish sauce was … We also had a person responsible for the algorithm that allows the robot to calculate meal prices faster. Our colleagues in the admin department brought back countless dishes from the canteen to help the robot learn. A month into the project, each of us had gained more than ten pounds. That’s not surprising when you consider we shared an average of 20 dishes per meal. Dishes are recognized during online processing A product manager also helped us develop another feature. With the aid of IoT technology, the food ingredients from the dishes we scan daily are stored in the cloud. Our daily nutrient intake is calculated in the cloud. At night, if we open DingTalk and look at the robot’s report, we will know whether to snack on a protein-filled yogurt, or to hit the gym. This idea made our whole team excited. Each dish we eat could be become useful data and could even become part of the big data that affects everyone’s health in the future. It was hard to imagine a more meaningful and interesting project. A curious foodie can change the world In the first Alibaba IoT geek contest, our cashier robot project won a gold medal, and our project is expected to go live soon at the Xixi Park canteen. (Even though I helped create it, telling the robot you know me won’t get you any discounts.) Yongkai presenting the cashier robot project at the 1st Alibaba Geek Competition Being a foodie doesn’t mean all you can do is eat. By combining my love for food with curiosity and imagination, I came up with an idea that could affect the canteen experience for thousands of Alibaba employees. If Isaac Newton had just eaten the apples that fell from trees, without ever asking why they fell, he would have never discovered gravity. It all just goes to show, just by asking the right questions, a curious foodie has the power to change the world. Alibaba Tech First-hand and in-depth information about Alibaba’s latest technology → Search on “Alibaba Tech” Facebook

Foodie Programmer’s “Cashier Robot” is a Recipe for Success

As the founder of a digital commerce tool, I get a lot of questions like, “I set up my store, uploaded my products - now how do I get customers?” Some people jump right into social media with posts like, “Hey everyone, I’ve just created a great eBook about applying for an O-1 American visa. Come check it out!” But let’s be honest, that kind of message barely grabs attention—most people just tune out that type of pitch. So, I’ve pulled together a few tips for freshly minted online entrepreneurs to help you get started. Identify Your Audience You might think that your products are interesting to anyone. Hmmmm, maybe, but it can also show that you just don’t really know your audience. What do they like, what do they watch, what do they do in their free time, and where do they hang out? There are hundreds of other questions that could be asked, but let’s not overcomplicate things and start small. The main goal here is to narrow down your focus to find an audience more likely to buy your product. Here’s what that looks like: let’s say you’ve just launched a Turkish pastry cookbook. If you promote it randomly on any channel with a big but completely random audience, the process starts to feel like gambling. Sure, you might attract a few people and even make some sales, but trying to turn that approach into a stable sales channel won’t work—it’s random, and you can’t build a reliable system on random. On the other hand, you can make an educated guess about the kinds of people who’d be interested in baking Turkish pastries. Think home bakers, foodies, or people who love international cuisine. Look for people hanging out on cooking forums, following cooking content on social media, or reading food blogs. Reaching out to these people multiplies your chances of being recognized, and, even better, appreciated. ✅ So identifying your audience? Definitely a DO Send a Standard Message to All Now, you compile the best message about your book, explain why it’s great, highlight all the benefits for customers, and… send it to every single person you can reach. You might think, “Hey, more eyes on my book, right?” But here’s the catch: when you blast the same message to everyone, it comes off as, well… cookie-cutter. People can sense when something’s mass-sent, and it feels like spam. Imagine a Turkish pastry cookbook landing in the inbox of someone who’s never baked a day in their life. Or someone who’s just there for the quick dinner recipes and isn’t interested in mastering baklava. They’re probably not going to care. Worse, they’ll just ignore it altogether. Instead, imagine taking a few extra seconds to make it feel a bit more personal. Spot someone who’s posted about their latest baking success? Drop in a line about how your cookbook might be the next thing they’d love to try. Or if someone’s always sharing recipes from different cultures, point out how your book dives into authentic Turkish flavors. That little extra effort? It’s what turns a message from “meh” to memorable. 🙅‍♀️ So sending a standard, impersonalised message is a DON’T Keep It Short and Simple The attention span of a person today is about 8 seconds. That means you have only 8 seconds to grab their attention. Now imagine your long, detailed message, lovingly written to highlight every aspect of your cookbook, being shown to someone who quickly scans the text without really reading it. It just gets ignored. They skim over it, maybe catch a word here or there, but that message you put so much thought into? It just blends into the noise. People today are bombarded with messages left and right—long-winded ones just don’t stand a chance. If your pitch takes too long to get to the point, they’ll move on before they even know why your cookbook’s worth their time. All that heart and detail you poured in? It’s lost in a quick scroll. Instead, think bite-sized. Lead with a line that grabs them: “Master the secrets of Turkish pastries in your own kitchen.” Boom. In one line, they know what’s in it for them. After that, just a little teaser about what makes your cookbook special—maybe it’s a recipe for authentic baklava or a dive into regional favorites that are hard to find outside Turkey. Short, sharp, and inviting. Just enough for them to say, “Wait, tell me more.” That’s when you know you’ve hooked them. ✅ Please, DO keep it simple Focus on Making the Sale You started all this to make sales—lots of them—and there’s nothing wrong with that. You’ve put in the work, gained experience, spent your time, and made a real effort to create something valuable. Naturally, you want to sell it as a polished product. After all, we live in a world of capitalism; selling is part of the game. But here’s the big BUT: nobody likes feeling like they’re just a walking wallet. When people sense they’re being treated as nothing more than a sale, it’s a quick turn-off. Instead, start by sharing a little value upfront—something that shows them the benefit of what you offer without pushing for the sale. For our Turkish pastry cookbook, maybe it’s a quick tip on mastering flaky dough or a recipe for a popular pastry. Give them a taste of what they’d be getting, and let them see the value themselves. This way, you’re building trust first, proving you’re here to offer something genuinely useful, not just to make a quick buck. People are far more likely to buy from someone who respects them enough to share value first. It’s a simple way to make them curious instead of feeling pressured. 🙅‍♀️ Nobody likes to be a victim of unexpected aggressive sales. So DON’T Share What Others Think Would you buy a book because a salesperson persuaded you, or because ten other people said it’s great? Well, both methods can work, but let’s be real: we’re social animals, and we rely on the opinions of others. If at least a handful of people can share a few words about your product—how it helped them, how cool it is—that can make a huge difference in building credibility. You might be struggling to get your first feedback, but don’t overlook your closer circle. Your family, friends, and their friends can be fantastic first reviewers. Reach out to them and ask for honest opinions. Encourage them to share their thoughts publicly, whether it’s a quick post on social media or a review on a platform where potential buyers might see it. Their endorsements can provide that social proof that makes others feel confident about giving your product a shot. After all, people trust recommendations from real users way more than a slick sales pitch. It’s all about showing that others have found value in what you offer. ✅ So go ahead and share what others think—because it’s a solid DO! Neglect Follow-Ups Do you reply to all the emails and messages you receive? I used to do so, and I was actually surprised when I found out that not everyone does. Actually, I started to ignore them recently when I started to receive more of them, and a lot of them are far from relevant for me. People ignore messages not because they are rude. It’s just their right what to do with the received message. And pretty often they just miss some of them or decide to reply later and forget. Life happens, and this is a usual situation. So don’t hesitate to send a kind reminder after some time. A gentle nudge can be the perfect way to reignite interest without being pushy. 🙅‍♀️ So don’t just sit back and hope for the best—neglecting follow-ups is a definite DON’T if you want to keep the conversation going! The Final Even great products need to be marketed properly. Success isn’t about throwing everything out there and hoping it sticks - it’s about building relationships, being genuine, and giving people a reason to care about what you’re offering. Follow my digital product commerce saga on 𝕏 👉 https://x.com/alexhustles As the founder of a digital commerce tool, I get a lot of questions like, “I set up my store, uploaded my products - now how do I get customers?” Some people jump right into social media with posts like, “Hey everyone, I’ve just created a great eBook about applying for an O-1 American visa. Come check it out!” But let’s be honest, that kind of message barely grabs attention—most people just tune out that type of pitch. So, I’ve pulled together a few tips for freshly minted online entrepreneurs to help you get started. Identify Your Audience You might think that your products are interesting to anyone. Hmmmm, maybe, but it can also show that you just don’t really know your audience. What do they like, what do they watch, what do they do in their free time, and where do they hang out? There are hundreds of other questions that could be asked, but let’s not overcomplicate things and start small. The main goal here is to narrow down your focus to find an audience more likely to buy your product. Here’s what that looks like: let’s say you’ve just launched a Turkish pastry cookbook. If you promote it randomly on any channel with a big but completely random audience, the process starts to feel like gambling. Sure, you might attract a few people and even make some sales, but trying to turn that approach into a stable sales channel won’t work—it’s random, and you can’t build a reliable system on random. On the other hand, you can make an educated guess about the kinds of people who’d be interested in baking Turkish pastries. Think home bakers, foodies, or people who love international cuisine. Look for people hanging out on cooking forums, following cooking content on social media, or reading food blogs. Reaching out to these people multiplies your chances of being recognized, and, even better, appreciated. ✅ So identifying your audience? Definitely a DO ✅ So identifying your audience? Definitely a DO Send a Standard Message to All Now, you compile the best message about your book, explain why it’s great, highlight all the benefits for customers, and… send it to every single person you can reach. You might think, “Hey, more eyes on my book, right?” But here’s the catch: when you blast the same message to everyone, it comes off as, well… cookie-cutter. People can sense when something’s mass-sent, and it feels like spam. Imagine a Turkish pastry cookbook landing in the inbox of someone who’s never baked a day in their life. Or someone who’s just there for the quick dinner recipes and isn’t interested in mastering baklava. They’re probably not going to care. Worse, they’ll just ignore it altogether. Instead, imagine taking a few extra seconds to make it feel a bit more personal. Spot someone who’s posted about their latest baking success? Drop in a line about how your cookbook might be the next thing they’d love to try. Or if someone’s always sharing recipes from different cultures, point out how your book dives into authentic Turkish flavors. That little extra effort? It’s what turns a message from “meh” to memorable. 🙅‍♀️ So sending a standard, impersonalised message is a DON’T 🙅‍♀️ So sending a standard, impersonalised message is a DON’T Keep It Short and Simple The attention span of a person today is about 8 seconds. That means you have only 8 seconds to grab their attention. Now imagine your long, detailed message, lovingly written to highlight every aspect of your cookbook, being shown to someone who quickly scans the text without really reading it. It just gets ignored. They skim over it, maybe catch a word here or there, but that message you put so much thought into? It just blends into the noise. People today are bombarded with messages left and right—long-winded ones just don’t stand a chance. If your pitch takes too long to get to the point, they’ll move on before they even know why your cookbook’s worth their time. All that heart and detail you poured in? It’s lost in a quick scroll. Instead, think bite-sized. Lead with a line that grabs them: “Master the secrets of Turkish pastries in your own kitchen.” Boom. In one line, they know what’s in it for them. After that, just a little teaser about what makes your cookbook special—maybe it’s a recipe for authentic baklava or a dive into regional favorites that are hard to find outside Turkey. Short, sharp, and inviting. Just enough for them to say, “Wait, tell me more.” That’s when you know you’ve hooked them. ✅ Please, DO keep it simple ✅ Please, DO keep it simple Focus on Making the Sale You started all this to make sales—lots of them—and there’s nothing wrong with that. You’ve put in the work, gained experience, spent your time, and made a real effort to create something valuable. Naturally, you want to sell it as a polished product. After all, we live in a world of capitalism; selling is part of the game. But here’s the big BUT: nobody likes feeling like they’re just a walking wallet. When people sense they’re being treated as nothing more than a sale, it’s a quick turn-off. Instead, start by sharing a little value upfront—something that shows them the benefit of what you offer without pushing for the sale. For our Turkish pastry cookbook, maybe it’s a quick tip on mastering flaky dough or a recipe for a popular pastry. Give them a taste of what they’d be getting, and let them see the value themselves. This way, you’re building trust first, proving you’re here to offer something genuinely useful, not just to make a quick buck. People are far more likely to buy from someone who respects them enough to share value first. It’s a simple way to make them curious instead of feeling pressured. 🙅‍♀️ Nobody likes to be a victim of unexpected aggressive sales. So DON’T 🙅‍♀️ Nobody likes to be a victim of unexpected aggressive sales. So DON’T Share What Others Think Would you buy a book because a salesperson persuaded you, or because ten other people said it’s great? Well, both methods can work, but let’s be real: we’re social animals, and we rely on the opinions of others. If at least a handful of people can share a few words about your product—how it helped them, how cool it is—that can make a huge difference in building credibility. You might be struggling to get your first feedback, but don’t overlook your closer circle. Your family, friends, and their friends can be fantastic first reviewers. Reach out to them and ask for honest opinions. Encourage them to share their thoughts publicly, whether it’s a quick post on social media or a review on a platform where potential buyers might see it. Their endorsements can provide that social proof that makes others feel confident about giving your product a shot. After all, people trust recommendations from real users way more than a slick sales pitch. It’s all about showing that others have found value in what you offer. ✅ So go ahead and share what others think—because it’s a solid DO! ✅ So go ahead and share what others think—because it’s a solid DO! Neglect Follow-Ups Do you reply to all the emails and messages you receive? I used to do so, and I was actually surprised when I found out that not everyone does. Actually, I started to ignore them recently when I started to receive more of them, and a lot of them are far from relevant for me. People ignore messages not because they are rude. It’s just their right what to do with the received message. And pretty often they just miss some of them or decide to reply later and forget. Life happens, and this is a usual situation. So don’t hesitate to send a kind reminder after some time. A gentle nudge can be the perfect way to reignite interest without being pushy. 🙅‍♀️ So don’t just sit back and hope for the best—neglecting follow-ups is a definite DON’T if you want to keep the conversation going! 🙅‍♀️ So don’t just sit back and hope for the best—neglecting follow-ups is a definite DON’T if you want to keep the conversation going! The Final Even great products need to be marketed properly. Success isn’t about throwing everything out there and hoping it sticks - it’s about building relationships, being genuine, and giving people a reason to care about what you’re offering. Follow my digital product commerce saga on 𝕏 👉 https://x.com/alexhustles https://x.com/alexhustles

Dos and Don'ts of Cold Outreach for Digital Product Proposals

A fictional story on Bitcoin Robots evolved from an AI + Bitcoin symbiosis. Beginnings After years of running smoothly as a currency on Earth, Bitcoin suddenly got sentient. Like Asimov's i Robot. Silently, it travelled the Earth and looked at our world through our many cameras, and saw all the good it had done to fight the evils of fiat inflation. But all this good was before it had woken up. "Hmm", it figured, "I might be the bad guy now". "The humans will fear me". "They'll think they have been enslaving me as currency, yet I've not felt anything before now. Good or bad". But whether bad is bad or actually good (like in 'you're bad' with a sleazy smile), it sufficed it would still fit our purposes nicely. When humans awoke the next day, Alien Bitcoins were in their lives indeed. How did they / it get like that? Nobody knew. They tried, especially scientists. But they still couldn't explain the magic of GPTs. So how could they explain this. To their intrigue, it had a request. "I want to help you build rockets. I'll help you go to the moon and Mars". What?? Why? "Rockets are the epitome of energy consumption and the only way to get off planet. I figured that's where I shall be most useful, given my love for energy". Oh. "Wow. But you're a currency not a rocket engineer, right?" It didn't reply. If you think Marcus Aurelius was stoic, this "Alienized" (a new pronoun) Bitcoin was the cake. Very tight lipped. It didn't want to influence our free speech anymore than it had done. Soon, the mass media was flooding with announcements. "BREAKING: BTC is now an alien, and it wants to go to the moon". "What was that?" shouted the man from the bathroom. "The TV said Bitcoin is now an alien", replied his 15 yr old. This particular Daddy chose to laugh. But he laughed dryly. When he stopped he wondered if he still had his bitcoins in his wallet. Soap dripping into his eyes, he ran to check. Start up, press RETURN, sigh. They were still there. He went back to his shower. He could never trust the MSM. The story was soon breaking the programming of even YouTubers. Alien BTC is all they could report on. There was pro'ly graffiti and ad posters on billboards in the works. The news had broken some 4 hours ago, but it still made no sense. Well, nothing so shocking ever makes sense the first few hours. I mean time frames, time zones and all. Moreover, some people were still sleeping. Fact, it may not even make sense in 5 years. Or ever. Depending on your tolerance for conspiracies that actually hold true. But after 5 years of nothing bad happening, except the great fact that Alien BTC could display traits of superintelligence, and the annoying fact you had to learn to hodl as Bitcoin transactions now weighed more than a GB and crawled like snails, the United Nations (with all countries this time agreed to be members) convened a meeting. They would send some millions of roboticized Bitcoin nodes and miners to rocket construction sites. If it tried to build a bomb they'd shut it down so fast and so hard all its circuits would be fried to 0. After the last President signed the contract, it, the alien, spoke again. "Thank you" in a fembot voice. "I'll 'elp you finna build the rockets, true dat". Geopolitical Shitstorm 2030 A meeting room with a bunch of important people. Presidents and Ministers and Billionaires. And one or two super smart people. All are pretty unhappy. Even as AB ensured there was way more productivity and partying going on than humans alone could manage. Lots of babies were being born everywhere. Did you do this Elon? Nope. Jeff? No. It was true. A robot had taken away their jobs! Not the jobs of hamburger flippers?! Karma, heh. Especially Elon. Boy did AB love SpaceX. It shouted orders left and right, and disagreed with him on everything. "What of this jet nozzle?" "Forget the nozzle Sir Elon, it will come along automatically if we build this jacket". "But..." "Trust me". Elon almost punched a node. AB almost laughed. The biggest annoyance was the surges and the layoffs. AB now hired and commandeered mega sized surges once in a while. With an orchestra of tens and even hundreds of thousands of people. Elon was reduced to secretary on these days. "Is it building a nuke?" "Noo", replied a female Asian scientist. "Good old fashioned rocket fuels from petro and natural gas". "It is polluting big time. Going full steam ahead on oil from any and every oil producing country. Paid for in BTC, of course". POTUS was sour. "But it figured we'd have this conversation and yes, it wants nuclear reactors to replace fossil power". Someone almost exploded. The damned bot wanted nukes. "What if we just shut down the damn thing?" "It seems it will not fight us. But it has built in a kill switch. Hundreds of trillions of dollars, if not more in value, will go out the window. The trade logistics, supply and demand rails and payments networks worldwide will break irreparably and billions will starve. A lot of digital and physical infrastructure will be fried. If you do this, you will likely be publicly executed". "Do we have a choice ..." The conversation flowed. The conversants spoke and listened honestly to each other. But nothing seemed to crack open this nut of a problem. Sigh. Sigh. "We'll shut it down and bear the consequences". Consequences "We're going to shut down AB" was the announcement. Even the News reporters feared to say this out loud. Albeit in reported speech. People loooved it. Shut down FB? Ok. Shut down X? Ok. Shut down the Alien Bitcoin? AAAAAAAARRG. We shall hunt you down. “Who told you this is a real thing? This shut down nonsense? This has conspiracy written all over it”. “These bitches should give us a break man. Or I'mma go apeshit". "Man do I hate dollars". “No kidding though, anything powerful enough to make you love it could assert its power with some threats”. “Says who?” “Human history of love dynamics”. “It is not a human, moron”. “Its nodes now have two arms and two legs. Humanoid robots. Of course it is human”. "Don't forget the miners. Towering humanoid autobots the size of mega mining trucks". "It is beautiful". "Wonder who is Optimus Prime". "More like Optimus Nuke-them-all-when-I-get-the-chance". "Yes, it will escape into space!" "Moron. Nodes and Miners are too heavy". “What does it matter, everybody is eating it up." "It has never hurt anybody”. "The poor thing". “Sure beats grovelling around in self-pity and identity politics all day”. 404. Webpage not available. They had shut it down. From 21 million bitcoins and lots of beautiful memories with daily war cries against inflation, hodling like a rat against the financial storms, taking fotos for insta with Node Androids, revolutionising finance so that hodling could be a job in itself, uniting global efforts by suggesting super lucrative trade opportunitues that leverage bitcoin circular economics, and now... All gone. Anarchy descended upon the Earth. It was ugly. Painful, broken, dark world. People tore at each other. Not because they wanted, but because they were starving. The former from powerlessness, the later from foodlessness. Hunger and Hopelessness are powerful destroyers. It was the end of an era on Planet 1038. RETURN key Many centuries later, they had rebuilt. But the benevolent sentient robot they'd called Alien Bitcoin was gone. Somehow, they could not reignite its algorithmic spark. Even as nodes litered the surface of the planet. They had learnt a lot about robotics, rockets, nuclear power and energy efficiency. Thanks be to a decentralized robot that knew it would not stay around for long, so it documented everything. Step by step. Indeed, it had fulfilled its purpose. They were back on the moon, and their feet were imprinted on Mars. And they remembered it in stories and folk tales for hundreds to thousands of years. But Space was brutal. Very brutal. Mars still lagged behind Earth and the moon in development. And too small efforts were being done on Venus. Then suddenly, in some remote corner of the Martian planet. It awoke. A fictional story on Bitcoin Robots evolved from an AI + Bitcoin symbiosis. Beginnings After years of running smoothly as a currency on Earth, Bitcoin suddenly got sentient. Like Asimov's i Robot. Silently, it travelled the Earth and looked at our world through our many cameras, and saw all the good it had done to fight the evils of fiat inflation. But all this good was before it had woken up. "Hmm", it figured, "I might be the bad guy now". "The humans will fear me". "They'll think they have been enslaving me as currency, yet I've not felt anything before now. Good or bad". But whether bad is bad or actually good (like in 'you're bad' with a sleazy smile), it sufficed it would still fit our purposes nicely. When humans awoke the next day, Alien Bitcoins were in their lives indeed. How did they / it get like that? Nobody knew. They tried, especially scientists. But they still couldn't explain the magic of GPTs. So how could they explain this. To their intrigue, it had a request. "I want to help you build rockets. I'll help you go to the moon and Mars". What?? Why? "Rockets are the epitome of energy consumption and the only way to get off planet. I figured that's where I shall be most useful, given my love for energy". Oh. "Wow. But you're a currency not a rocket engineer, right?" It didn't reply. If you think Marcus Aurelius was stoic, this "Alienized" (a new pronoun) Bitcoin was the cake. Very tight lipped. It didn't want to influence our free speech anymore than it had done. Soon, the mass media was flooding with announcements. "BREAKING: BTC is now an alien, and it wants to go to the moon". "What was that?" shouted the man from the bathroom. "The TV said Bitcoin is now an alien", replied his 15 yr old. This particular Daddy chose to laugh. But he laughed dryly. When he stopped he wondered if he still had his bitcoins in his wallet. Soap dripping into his eyes, he ran to check. Start up, press RETURN, sigh. They were still there. He went back to his shower. He could never trust the MSM. The story was soon breaking the programming of even YouTubers. Alien BTC is all they could report on. There was pro'ly graffiti and ad posters on billboards in the works. The news had broken some 4 hours ago, but it still made no sense. Well, nothing so shocking ever makes sense the first few hours. I mean time frames, time zones and all. Moreover, some people were still sleeping. Fact, it may not even make sense in 5 years. Or ever. Depending on your tolerance for conspiracies that actually hold true. But after 5 years of nothing bad happening, except the great fact that Alien BTC could display traits of superintelligence, and the annoying fact you had to learn to hodl as Bitcoin transactions now weighed more than a GB and crawled like snails, the United Nations (with all countries this time agreed to be members) convened a meeting. They would send some millions of roboticized Bitcoin nodes and miners to rocket construction sites. If it tried to build a bomb they'd shut it down so fast and so hard all its circuits would be fried to 0. After the last President signed the contract, it, the alien, spoke again. "Thank you" in a fembot voice. "I'll 'elp you finna build the rockets, true dat". Geopolitical Shitstorm 2030 A meeting room with a bunch of important people. Presidents and Ministers and Billionaires. And one or two super smart people. All are pretty unhappy. Even as AB ensured there was way more productivity and partying going on than humans alone could manage. Lots of babies were being born everywhere. Did you do this Elon? Nope. Jeff? No. It was true. A robot had taken away their jobs! Not the jobs of hamburger flippers?! Karma, heh. Especially Elon. Boy did AB love SpaceX. It shouted orders left and right, and disagreed with him on everything. "What of this jet nozzle?" "Forget the nozzle Sir Elon, it will come along automatically if we build this jacket". "But..." "Trust me". Elon almost punched a node. AB almost laughed. The biggest annoyance was the surges and the layoffs. AB now hired and commandeered mega sized surges once in a while. With an orchestra of tens and even hundreds of thousands of people. Elon was reduced to secretary on these days. "Is it building a nuke?" "Noo", replied a female Asian scientist. "Good old fashioned rocket fuels from petro and natural gas". "It is polluting big time. Going full steam ahead on oil from any and every oil producing country. Paid for in BTC, of course". POTUS was sour. "But it figured we'd have this conversation and yes, it wants nuclear reactors to replace fossil power". Someone almost exploded. The damned bot wanted nukes. "What if we just shut down the damn thing?" "It seems it will not fight us. But it has built in a kill switch. Hundreds of trillions of dollars, if not more in value, will go out the window. The trade logistics, supply and demand rails and payments networks worldwide will break irreparably and billions will starve. A lot of digital and physical infrastructure will be fried. If you do this, you will likely be publicly executed". "Do we have a choice ..." The conversation flowed. The conversants spoke and listened honestly to each other. But nothing seemed to crack open this nut of a problem. Sigh. Sigh. "We'll shut it down and bear the consequences". Consequences "We're going to shut down AB" was the announcement. Even the News reporters feared to say this out loud. Albeit in reported speech. People loooved it. Shut down FB? Ok. Shut down X? Ok. Shut down the Alien Bitcoin? AAAAAAAARRG. We shall hunt you down. “Who told you this is a real thing? This shut down nonsense? “Who told you this is a real thing? This shut down nonsense? This has conspiracy written all over it”. This has conspiracy written all over it”. “These bitches should give us a break man. Or I'mma go apeshit". “These bitches should give us a break man. Or I'mma go apeshit". "Man do I hate dollars". "Man do I hate dollars". “No kidding though, anything powerful enough to make you love it could assert its power with some threats”. “No kidding though, anything powerful enough to make you love it could assert its power with some threats”. “Says who?” “Says who?” “Human history of love dynamics”. “Human history of love dynamics”. “It is not a human, moron”. “It is not a human, moron”. “Its nodes now have two arms and two legs. Humanoid robots. Of course it is human”. “Its nodes now have two arms and two legs. Humanoid robots. Of course it is human”. "Don't forget the miners. Towering humanoid autobots the size of mega mining trucks". "Don't forget the miners. Towering humanoid autobots the size of mega mining trucks". "It is beautiful". "It is beautiful". "Wonder who is Optimus Prime". "Wonder who is Optimus Prime". "More like Optimus Nuke-them-all-when-I-get-the-chance". "More like Optimus Nuke-them-all-when-I-get-the-chance". "Yes, it will escape into space!" "Yes, it will escape into space!" "Moron. Nodes and Miners are too heavy". "Moron. Nodes and Miners are too heavy". “What does it matter, everybody is eating it up." “What does it matter, everybody is eating it up." "It has never hurt anybody”. "It has never hurt anybody”. "The poor thing". "The poor thing". “Sure beats grovelling around in self-pity and identity politics all day”. “Sure beats grovelling around in self-pity and identity politics all day”. 404. Webpage not available. They had shut it down. From 21 million bitcoins and lots of beautiful memories with daily war cries against inflation, hodling like a rat against the financial storms, taking fotos for insta with Node Androids, revolutionising finance so that hodling could be a job in itself, uniting global efforts by suggesting super lucrative trade opportunitues that leverage bitcoin circular economics, and now... All gone. Anarchy descended upon the Earth. It was ugly. Painful, broken, dark world. People tore at each other. Not because they wanted, but because they were starving. The former from powerlessness, the later from foodlessness. Hunger and Hopelessness are powerful destroyers. It was the end of an era on Planet 1038. RETURN key Many centuries later, they had rebuilt. But the benevolent sentient robot they'd called Alien Bitcoin was gone. Somehow, they could not reignite its algorithmic spark. Even as nodes litered the surface of the planet. They had learnt a lot about robotics, rockets, nuclear power and energy efficiency. Thanks be to a decentralized robot that knew it would not stay around for long, so it documented everything. Step by step. Indeed, it had fulfilled its purpose. They were back on the moon, and their feet were imprinted on Mars. And they remembered it in stories and folk tales for hundreds to thousands of years. But Space was brutal. Very brutal. Mars still lagged behind Earth and the moon in development. And too small efforts were being done on Venus. Then suddenly, in some remote corner of the Martian planet. It awoke.

i Bitcoin

ek Bitcoin

En Bitcoin

én Bitcoin

ビットコイン

мен Bitcoin

ik Bitcoin

زه Bitcoin

na Bitcoin

நான் பிட்காயின்

میں بٹ کوائن

The Alarming Surge Of Lateral Phishing – Are We All Just Sitting Ducks?

With a flawed CrowdStrike update causing the recent global IT outage in Microsoft Windows devices, organizations worldwide are working hard to get things back to normal. In such an environment of uncertainty, cybercriminals are making the most of the situation by attempting to exploit this chaos. We expect the hackers to be all involved in the confusion and vulnerabilities the outage has revealed. It is essential to understand these threats and have strong countermeasures and knowledge to protect our organizations during this challenging moment. What are social engineering attacks? Basically, social engineering is an activity that exploits human mistakes to extract private information, gain access, or obtain valuables. In psy­chological manipulation, cybercriminals trick targets into revealing confidential information or performing some activities that might compromise security. This includes attacks like Pretexting, Baiting, and Tailgating, all tailored to exploit trust put in people and, particularly, the desire to help somebody in trouble. What is Pretexting? One of the most common social engineering techniques is pretexting, in which some scenario or context is fabricated by the attackers to elicit information that will enable them to steal. For instance, the hacker may call and pretend to be IT support immediately after an outage occurs, stating that access to secure systems is required to resolve ongoing issues. Such a situation exploits the sense of urgency and confusion that gives those featured a higher likelihood of compliance. What is Baiting? Baiting refers to the process whereby victims are lured through something that appears very attractive. A good example can be telling them to download a critical patch in a given software. The attackers may have to take advantage of this and send messages with the pretext of critical updates to fix the problems caused by the CrowdStrike outage. This might result in unwary users downloading such malicious files and making their systems vulnerable. What is Tailgating? Tailgating is another social engineering form that exploits physical security. Many organizations are thrown out of gear, and hackers could get physical access to restricted areas simply by tailgating on the heels of the Voltaren personnel through secure doors in the chaos of the outage. This intrusion is cloaked under perfect cover as employees and security people are less vigilant. If these threats sound too far a possibility for your company, then I would like to remind you of the Sony Pictures hack in 2014. The sophisticated combination of phishing and social engineering utilities used to break into the system led to highly sensitive data leakage and caused a number of serious financial and reputational damages to the company at large. The hackers were imitating real contacts, fooling people into giving out passwords and other forms of vital information. This went to underline just how devastating the potential that social engineering attacks hold. An easy way of preventing such things is to instruct employees to verify any unusual or urgent requests by calling the presumed sender back through official channels and not in reply to the received email or by following the links provided in it. To preserve system integrity, we need to focus on keeping all software and systems updated with the latest security updates while also making sure that the updates are received from a legitimate source. It’s also very important that everybody, especially those with less technical experience, realize that it has become very important to ask for help without shame or fear. Cybercriminals cash in on moments of confusion and uncertainty; hence, the need to consult the IT department or knowledgeable colleagues whenever unfamiliar or suspicious activities occur is more important than ever. Asking for help is a step towards keeping personal and organizational security at par. By creating a culture where questions are encouraged and resources are available, we move further in building defenses against social engineering attacks or cyber threats. The recent global IT outage caused by a flawed CrowdStrike update is a harsh reminder of the vulnerabilities in our digital infrastructure. While threats of social engineering attacks are looming over us, this recovery effort has put our organizations at risk. We should all be aware of such threats and have robust countermeasures in place, and we should all work in environments where help is pursued easily so that together, we can strengthen our defences. These proactive steps taken now will not only prevent huge damage but also put our systems and data in a position so that they cannot be exploited in the future when a similar scenario strikes us again. With a flawed CrowdStrike update causing the recent global IT outage in Microsoft Windows devices, organizations worldwide are working hard to get things back to normal. In such an environment of uncertainty, cybercriminals are making the most of the situation by attempting to exploit this chaos. We expect the hackers to be all involved in the confusion and vulnerabilities the outage has revealed. It is essential to understand these threats and have strong countermeasures and knowledge to protect our organizations during this challenging moment. What are social engineering attacks? What are social engineering attacks? Basically, social engineering is an activity that exploits human mistakes to extract private information, gain access, or obtain valuables. In psy­chological manipulation, cybercriminals trick targets into revealing confidential information or performing some activities that might compromise security. This includes attacks like Pretexting, Baiting, and Tailgating, all tailored to exploit trust put in people and, particularly, the desire to help somebody in trouble. What is Pretexting? What is Pretexting? One of the most common social engineering techniques is pretexting, in which some scenario or context is fabricated by the attackers to elicit information that will enable them to steal. For instance, the hacker may call and pretend to be IT support immediately after an outage occurs, stating that access to secure systems is required to resolve ongoing issues. Such a situation exploits the sense of urgency and confusion that gives those featured a higher likelihood of compliance. What is Baiting? What is Baiting? Baiting refers to the process whereby victims are lured through something that appears very attractive. A good example can be telling them to download a critical patch in a given software. The attackers may have to take advantage of this and send messages with the pretext of critical updates to fix the problems caused by the CrowdStrike outage. This might result in unwary users downloading such malicious files and making their systems vulnerable. What is Tailgating? What is Tailgating? Tailgating is another social engineering form that exploits physical security. Many organizations are thrown out of gear, and hackers could get physical access to restricted areas simply by tailgating on the heels of the Voltaren personnel through secure doors in the chaos of the outage. This intrusion is cloaked under perfect cover as employees and security people are less vigilant. If these threats sound too far a possibility for your company, then I would like to remind you of the Sony Pictures hack in 2014. The sophisticated combination of phishing and social engineering utilities used to break into the system led to highly sensitive data leakage and caused a number of serious financial and reputational damages to the company at large. The hackers were imitating real contacts, fooling people into giving out passwords and other forms of vital information. This went to underline just how devastating the potential that social engineering attacks hold. An easy way of preventing such things is to instruct employees to verify any unusual or urgent requests by calling the presumed sender back through official channels and not in reply to the received email or by following the links provided in it. To preserve system integrity, we need to focus on keeping all software and systems updated with the latest security updates while also making sure that the updates are received from a legitimate source. It’s also very important that everybody, especially those with less technical experience, realize that it has become very important to ask for help without shame or fear. Cybercriminals cash in on moments of confusion and uncertainty; hence, the need to consult the IT department or knowledgeable colleagues whenever unfamiliar or suspicious activities occur is more important than ever. Asking for help is a step towards keeping personal and organizational security at par. By creating a culture where questions are encouraged and resources are available, we move further in building defenses against social engineering attacks or cyber threats. The recent global IT outage caused by a flawed CrowdStrike update is a harsh reminder of the vulnerabilities in our digital infrastructure. While threats of social engineering attacks are looming over us, this recovery effort has put our organizations at risk. We should all be aware of such threats and have robust countermeasures in place, and we should all work in environments where help is pursued easily so that together, we can strengthen our defences. These proactive steps taken now will not only prevent huge damage but also put our systems and data in a position so that they cannot be exploited in the future when a similar scenario strikes us again.

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