The Galaxy Backbone (GBB), has debunked rumours of holding virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC), meeting on a platform running a deprecated operating system thereby presenting potential security issues.
The virtual meeting was coordinated by the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy.
The Managing Director, GBB, Prof. Mohammed Abubakar, debunked the rumour in a statement signed by him and made available to newsmen on Thursday in Abuja.
Abubakar said GBB executed the virtual meeting with the support of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) as the regulator of the sector and Nigerian Communication Satellite (NigComSat) accordingly.
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He said the virtual FEC meeting was held on cutting-edge technology infrastructure with up-to-date computer components, robust network security system and Next-Generation Firewalls forming a ring-fencing around it.
Abubakar said the computers, which supported the network monitoring system were 10 and had extended Windows 7 Security Updates until 2023.
“We would not have responded to the write-up, but in the interest of the reading public, we are compelled to provide some clarifications.
“The photo of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy which precipitated this wrong assertion was taken in the Network Monitoring Centre (NMC), of the Uptime Institute Tier 3 certified National Shared Services Centre, a data centre, operated by Galaxy Backbone Limited.
“The screen is a display of monitoring activities around our network across the country. The computing systems running this monitoring are offline.
“There are systems that are specially designed such that absolutely no feature changes can be tolerated for the life of their devices, examples are medical control equipment, PoS systems, ATMs, Digital Signage among others.
“Such systems typically have a 10-year servicing and support lifecycles. This is where our network monitoring system belongs,” he said.
Abubakar said that Nigerians should visit https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4527878/faq-about-extended-security-updates-for-windows-7 for further details.
He said GBB had ISO 20000 and ISO 27001 certifications, and took Information Technology security management very seriously and upgraded its systems based on standards.
Abubakar also said that GBB was made up of seasoned, well-trained and experienced ICT professionals, determined to continue to provide the best infrastructure to support the Ministry’s initiative.
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