Eko Innovation Centre (EIC’s) SecureHack 1.0 has produced winners. After rigorous processes, the jurors found HealthWaka’s biosecurity innovation the most attractive and the go-to-market solution. HealthWaka takes home the N1,000,000 Prize including funding by Hazon Captial and EIC Accelerator Programme.
Cyberverse emerged second, winning N650,000 while Team 6 came third, winning N350,000.
Post Hackathon, the participants will be engaged in an incubation and acceleration programme with 50 incubators already secured to take them through the process. They will also become part of SecureHack Communities.
Speaking at the grand finale on Saturday, April 15, 2023, Mr. Victor ‘Gbenga Afolabi, the Founder of Eko Innovation Centre, a civic-tech technology hub in Lagos (Nigeria), said that SecureHack 1.0 is a hackathon programme designed to drive tech innovations across three thematic areas: Biosecurity, Physical Security, and Cyber Security.
He said that the event, which brought together innovators and security experts in the fields of cyber, biology, and physical security, provided a challenging and engaging learning experience that raises awareness about security.
Eko Innovation Centre, the curators of Art of Technology Lagos (Art of Lagos), MarkHack, EkoClimathon, among other civic-tech focused solutions, recorded 400 participants across four continents from 62 locations.
Speaking further, Mr. Afolabi said that 70+ teams splited into 3 focus areas with 50 teams focusing on cyber security, five teams on biosecurity and 17 teams on physical security.
Ten (10) speakers,15 mentors, 17 jurors and 3 finale jurors graced the hackathon programme making it one of the most carefully designed security hackathon in Nigeria with supports from Digital Encode Limited, Microsoft Nigeria, Unity Bank Plc, Cisco, Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), ARM, etc.
Why SecureHack?
Global Security incidents are up, 65% of organizations worldwide report an increase in attempted cyberattacks.
“We all rely on technology more than we want to in today’s world. Unfortunately, most technology is quite vulnerable and can be easily hacked. Cyberattacks, physical security concerns and biosecurity attacks hit the ecosystem every day, and the variety of attacks has increased quickly.
“The only way to leapfrog is to create solutions for Africa by African. We want people who understand our challenges to come up with the solutions.
“Security threat is much more than an IT topic “The five most efficient cyber defenders: Anticipation, Education, Detection, Reaction and Resilience.
“Also, at Eko Innovation Centre, incubates and accelerates startups. We believe that the best way to add value to the ecosystem is to handhold startups to commercialise their ideas”, Mr. Afolabi said.
Watch VGA speak on SecureHack:
In his keynote presentation, Oluasolape Akinde, Head, IT GRC and DPO, Seven-Up Bottling Company Limited, spoke on ‘Strengthening Cybersecurity in Africa’s Emerging Digital Economy’.
According to him, technology comes with its benefits and challenges, and Africa being a developing economy should scale up in order not to be found wanting in the cybersecurity arena.
“In this 21st Century data is fundamental and what we do with it matters a lot. Presently, the IoT, ChatGPT, and all AI enabled solutions are meant to make life easier, however, the cybersecurity challenges will live with us.
“It is therefore safe to say that IT is a double-edged sword. Increased complexity, speed, interconnectivity and globalization mean more than ever that IT: offers extraordinary opportunities to enable and transform business. While we are doing this, it involves huge costs and enormous risks. As of 2020 the top five quoted companies are technology companies showing how far the world has gone to adopt technology”.
He further extoled Eko Innovation Centre’s visionary with SecureHack for identifying and designing solutions to some of the recurring problems which would take Cyber Security, Physical Security and BioSecurity to the next level.
Present at the grand finale are the jurors – Dr. Obadare Peter Adewale, Co-founder, Digital Encode Limited, Ayodele Olojede, Group Head, Emerging Businesses Africa, Access Bank Plc., and David Arome Ali, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Airtel; mentors, media and other members of security community.
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