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Netball South Africa (NSA) has announced that their activities will resume with immediate effect.

Activities were suspended last month after a spike in Covid-19 cases which led to President Cyril Ramaphosa introducing level three restrictions which were recently reviewed and relaxed.

The decision to resume netball activities was not an easy one because we are still amid a pandemic and we needed to be very careful on how we will do things going forward said NSA president Cecilia Molokwane.

This was a balancing act because key to our list of priorities is ensuring that we preserve the lives of all our stakeholders whilst we play the sport we love.

"As the executive together with our events and compliance teams we have put measures in place that will enable us to make sure that we protect the lives of everyone.

NSA said the first event to take place will be the Spar Challenge in Cape Town from the 24th to the 31st of March after it was postponed last month due to level three restrictions.

Participating teams will be the Netball Proteas the SA Presidents XII the Baby Proteas (SA U21) Uganda while Namibia are yet to confirm their participation in the series.

NSA reiterated that the series will take place in a biologically safe environment and teams will meet for a pre-training camp between the 19th and 23rd of March 2021.

The Netball Proteas team and SA Presidents XII team were announced in December 2020 and head coach of the Baby Proteas (U21) Dr Elsje Jordaan will announce her final team before the series.

The Baby Proteas will use the series to get some game time and work on combinations ahead of the U21 Netball World Youth Cup in Fiji at the end of the year.

In such challenging times we are blessed to be able to play competitive netball and our appreciation goes to the Department of Sports Art and Culture Netball South Africa and the City of Cape Town for partnering together to make sure that the 2021 Spar Challenge takes place in a safe environment said Spar Group Marketing Executive Mike Prentice.

The City of Cape Town is proud to partner with Netball SA for this major continental series.

"As the home of Netball for the next three years leading up to the 2023 Netball World Cup the Mother City will again showcase to the global stage that it can host major events in a safe environment despite the pandemic.

"We are looking forward to welcoming the teams to our city and for them to experience the beauty of the Mother City said the City of Cape Towns Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security JP Smith.

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Netball activities in SA given green light to resume - TimesLIVE

The Spar Challenge in Cape Town next month will mark the first major netball event in the country after Netball SA (NSA) announced resumption of its activities yesterday.

NSA had suspended its programme at the height of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic's second wave.

With SA set to host Africa's first International Netball Federation World Cup in Cape Town in 2023, the SA senior netball team needs every opportunity it can get to prepare for the world championships on home soil.

In the Spar Challenge, the Proteas will compete against Uganda, as well as against Proteas Under-21 and SA President invitational squad on March 24-30. The tournament will be played in a bio-bubble. An invitation has also been extended to Namibia and NSA is hoping for a positive response from the neighbouring nation.

Last year NSA hosted three successful bio-bubble events in Free State, North West and Limpopo and NSA president Cecilia Molokwane is confident even the next one will go through smoothly.

"The decision to resume playing was not an easy one. We are still in a pandemic and have to be careful about how we conduct our business. We have put measures in place to protect the lives of everyone involved," Molokwane said yesterday.

She emphasised the need to keep the Proteas busy and sharp as 2023 approaches.

The participating teams in the Challenge will assemble in the Mother City for pre-training on March 19-23.

The City of Cape Town's mayoral committee member, JP Smith, said the city would create a safe environment for the players, coaches and officials.

"As the home of netball for the next three years up to the 2023 World Cup, it is an opportunity to prepare the city for the world championships in a safe environment. No one knows what the future holds," Smith said.

The rest is here:
Netball back on court with Cape tourney - SowetanLIVE

The accused were members of the local liquor mafia (Representative Image).  |  Photo Credit: iStock Images

Kasganj: In an incident that has exposed the lawlessness in the state of Uttar Pradesh, a police officer was allegedly beaten to death by members of the liquor mafia. The accused did not stop here, they also thrashed a sub-inspector.

The incident took place when a police team led by Sub-inspector Ashok went to the Nagla Dhimar village which falls under the Sidhpura police station area of Kasganj.

The team went to the spot to serve a notice for attachment of property when they were allegedly attacked by a group of persons. The accused were members of the local liquor mafia.

A constable, identified as Devendra was allegedly beaten to death by the accused while the SI sustained injuries. After the incident, a team led by ASP Aditya Prakash Verma started conducting raids to nab the accused. Police reinforcements from nearby districts were also called to Kasganj.

After the incident, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath ordered slapping the National Security Act (NSA) against the accused.

Continue reading here:
Brutal assault in Kasganj: Cop mercilessly thrashed to death by liquor mafia, CM Yogi orders slapping of NSA - Times Now

After Netball South Africa (NSA) announced early in January that all planned netball activities had been suspended until further notice, there was good news last week for lovers of this popular sport.

NSA said in a statement that their Executive Committee have been reviewing the situation in the country after constant consultation with the relevant government departments.

Following the announcement by President Ramaphosa that the lockdown level three restrictions have been reviewed and relaxed, the Netball authorities have decided that netball activities should resume effective from Monday 08th February.

The decision to resume netball activities was not an easy one, because we are still amid a pandemic and we needed to be very careful on how we will do things going forward. This was a balancing act, because key to our list of priorities is ensuring that we preserve the lives of all our stakeholders whilst we play the sport we love. As the Executive together with our Events and Compliance teams, we have put measures in place that will enable us to make sure that we protect the lives of everyone, said Cecilia Molokwane, Netball South Africa President.

The first event that will take place is the SPAR Challenge, which was supposed to happen at the beginning of the year. The participating teams will be the SPAR Proteas, the SA Presidents XII, the SPAR Baby Proteas (under 21) and Ugandas national team, while Namibia yet to confirm participation.

The SPAR Challenge will take place under strict health and safety regulations. The tournament will happen in a biologically safe environment in Cape Town from the 24th to 31st of March 2021, after the teams gathered for a pre-training camp between the 19th and 23rd of March 2021.

Cape Town will be the home of Netball for the next three years leading up to the 2023 Netball World Cup.

NSA also encouraged local teams that would like to resume training and host coaching clinics to submit their risk mitigation plan to NSAs offices for approval. This is done to ensure that everyone adheres to the rules and regulations.

The SPAR Proteas team and SA Presidents XII team were announced in December 2020. Dr Elsje Jordaan, head coach of the SPAR Baby Proteas, will announce her final team before the SPAR Challenge. She will use this series to get some game time for her players and get combinations right ahead of the under 21 Netball World Youth Cup in Fiji at the end of the year.

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Netball also returns to action - Rekord East

Philip Quade has simple advice for cybersecurity teams across the world: Move fast to avoid breaking things.

Quade, former special assistant for cyber to the director of the National Security Agency, believes most security teams undervalue speed as part of their day-to-day operations and could benefit by adopting the NSA's "pedal to the metal" approach.

Now the chief information security officer at the security firm Fortinet, Quade is aiming to impart his strategy on private sector players. He discussed the guiding principals behind his approach as well as common cybersecurity pitfalls during an online panel hosted by AT&T cybersecurity director Theresa Lanowitz on Wednesday.

"NSA put the pedal to the metal, meaning it did things strategically," Quade told Lanowitz. "It was all fundamentally built around the philosophy of doing things very, very quickly."

Quade's three decades of experience at NSA gives him a unique perspective: As the agency's top-ranking cybersecurity official during the Obama administration, Quade oversaw both defensive and offensive operations, gaining insight into both sides of cyberwarfare.

The NSA's adherence to moving quickly powered its intelligence-gathering operations during those years, Quade said. Most people became familiar with the details of those operations in 2013 when Edward Snowden, an NSA subcontractor, leaked documents showing that the agency was collecting millions of Americans' mobile phone call records in search of terrorists. A subsequent federal law discontinued the practice.

"Everything that NSA did was completely authorized by the President, the courts and the Congress ... and ultimately when some of those things became more widely known, it scared the public a little bit and in the courts and Congress and the White House kind of recalibrated to be consistent with public interests," Quade said Wednesday. "But one of the fundamental strategies of NSA was being able to do things at speed and scale."

Three problems have proven particularly hard to solve for most cybersecurity teams: authenticating people's identities online, training their organizations' staff on cybersecurity basics, and patching vulnerabilities. Prioritizing speed in all three areas can be a useful framework for improving defenses, Quade said.

"If we could have solved what has solved the authentication problem from the beginning, we wouldn't be in business today. And what I mean is that lack of trustworthy authentication is the root cause of nearly all cybersecurity problems," Quade said.

Fortinet CISO and former special assistant for cyber to the director of the NSA Phil Quade Fortinet

One way to build speedier authentication defenses is to protect against "known unknowns" by adopting tools that detect unusual behavior on their networks like an employee attempting to log in at an unusual time or unfamiliar location and automatically shutting down the attempt.

Quade added that organizations should update software as often as possible to throw off attackers, noting that software patches posed an obstacle to the NSA's offensive operations when he worked there.

"As a person who was authorized by our overseers to do offensive operations against others, it was relatively easy to find vulnerabilities and develop exploits," he said. "But what made it really, really hard was when the systems were patched or when the systems changed."

Quade and Lanowitz both predict that security teams will increasingly adopt a "zero trust" model that assumes any device or account on its networks could be compromised at any times and builds in security checks accordingly. Fortinet announced a new suite of zero trust capabilities for its cybersecurity software on Thursday.

"Your network would be perfect if it wasn't for these carbon-based lifeforms that have to live on top of it," Lanowitz said.

Companies are more likely to need to prioritize zero trust in their security systems now in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lanowitz added. Employees are working from their home networks, which often lack the protections of corporate systems.

Read this article:
Former NSA official explains how the agency ran offensive operations - Business Insider