Wednesday, 10 November 2010

ICTAM has successfully negotiated a deal for student and staff New Horizons - Malawi

The ICT Association of Malawi (ICTAM) received so many complaints from students and teachers of New Horizons who are members of the association and also frustrated parents and guardians of the closure of New Horizons in Malawi. One of our tasks as an association is to protect the interest of our members.

ICTAM do appreciate the role New Horizons Malawi has been playing in this country. Providing full range of IT internationally recognized qualification and business skills through flexible and innovative learning methods. This is in agreement with ICTAM’s top three focus areas namely ICT Knowledge, Services and Infrastructures of the five priorities. Information and communication technologies (ICT) knowledge is a key enabler of socioeconomic progress and development, enhancing productivity and therefore economic growth, reducing poverty and improving living standards in many ways.

ICTAM together with current owners of New Horizons Malawi, Educom LTD met on the 10th of November 2010, at Riverside Hotel and sign an agreement on the following conditions

  1. A guarantee for all enrolled (existing) students completing all their courses and exams and those refund for those interested.
  2. All Staff been assured they will receive all their salaries and all remunerations as per contract and as stipulated in the laws of MALAWI.
  3. That Mr Sancho Zacharia and Satheesh Acharya managers for Lilongwe & Blantyre get ALL their remunerations per contract, and as stipulated in the laws of MALAWI, and all required notices as inscribed in the contract.
  4. That there are closing policies setup by the management for smooth transition.

It was through the same meeting that we both agreed on how the current student will be helped to the end. It is the wish of the owner of Educom Ltd Mr Dev V who has travelled long distance to be with us on this discussion to see to it that all existing students fully complete their courses and write exams even at the cost of paying staff overtime. ICTAM has been assured that ALL staff at both campuses will receive their salaries and gratuity.

The reason for closing down is purely not hitting the target hence operating under loss, however, ICTAM is more appreciative to Mr Dev V for his support and kindness to our students and staff even though master franchise, Techno Brain (Malawi) have no interest to support current students and staff at New Horizon under Educom LTD. ICTAM is disappointed knowing they are setting up similar institution hypothetically under new management with no interest of inheriting current students and staff.

Credit has to be given to staff and students of New Horizons for bravery during this trying period. We also sincerely thank the Malawi Police (Lilongwe Area 3) for their support and corporation, Ministers’ of Labour and Education, and we are highly grateful to the media for support.

We wish our dear students at New Horizons both campuses (Lilongwe and Blantyre) all the best. The future of Malawi ICT is in their hands. We need to join hands to fulfill our priority goal of ICT Knowledge. It is through knowledge that we can advance and achieve full utilization of ICT.

This statement has been jointly released by ICTAM and EDUCOM LTD assigned below:

Singed here by:

(EDUCOM LTD)

Mr Dev V.

(Managing Director)

Signed here by:

(ICTAM)

Mr Maxwell Phiri

(President)

Saturday, 16 October 2010

Signs That Your Computer is Infected with Viruses, Malware, or Trojans.



  1. My computer speaks to me: There are all types of pop-ups and messages on the desktop either advertising things, saying that the PC is infected and needs protection. This is a typical, surefire case of an infection. There is either spyware on the computer, or it has been infected by a fake antivirus.
  2. My computer is running extremely slowly¦ This could be a symptom of many things, including infection by a virus. If it has been infected by a virus, worm or Trojan, among other things, which are running on the computer, they could be running tasks that consume a lot of resources, making the system run more slowly than usual.
  3. Applications wont start. How many times have you tried to run an application from the start menu or desktop and nothing happens? Sometimes another program might even run. As in the previous case, this could be another type of problem, but at the very least it's a symptom that tells you that something is wrong.
  4. I cannot connect to the Internet or it runs very slowly. Loss of Internet communication is another common symptom of infection, although it could also be due to a problem with your service provider or router. You might also have a connection that runs much more slowly than usual. If you have been infected, the malware could be connecting to a URL or opening separate connection sessions, thereby reducing your available bandwidth or making it practically impossible to use the Internet.
  5. When I connect to the Internet, all types of windows open or the browser displays pages I have not requested. This is another certain sign of infection. Many threats are designed to redirect traffic to certain websites against the user's will, and can even spoof Web pages, making you think you are on a legitimate site when really you have been taken to a malicious imitation.
  6. Where have my files gone? Hopefully nobody will be asking this type of question, although there are still some threats around designed to delete or encrypt information, to move documents from one place to another and If you find yourself in this situation, you really ought to start worrying.
  7. Oh, oh… My antivirus has disappeared, my firewall is disabled… Another typical characteristic of many threats is that they disable security systems (antivirus, firewall, etc.) installed on computers. Perhaps if one thing shuts down it might just be a specific software failure; but if all your security components are disabled, you are almost certainly infected.
  8. My computer is speaking a strange language. If the language of certain applications changes, the screen appears back-to-front, strange insects start eating the desktop, you might just have an infected system.
  9. Library files for running games, programs, etc. have disappeared from my computer. Once again, this could be a sign of infection, although it could also be down to incomplete or incorrect installation of programs.
  10. My computer has gone mad literally. If the computer starts acting on its own, you suddenly find your system has been sending emails without your knowledge, Internet sessions or applications open sporadically on their own your system could be compromised by malware.

Please do Visit ITS Enterprises, in Filimoni House, City Centre, email admin@itsenterprises.biz or visit www.itsenterprises.biz we have eScan SMB, Corporate solutions for you. Virus Cleaning is free.