The Best Pool Accessories to Upgrade Your Summer (2026)
These are the cleaning robots, water monitors, and toys actually worth buying for pool season.
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These are the cleaning robots, water monitors, and toys actually worth buying for pool season.
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This article is adapted by the author with permission from Tech Policy Press. Read the original article. South Africa is not just another developing country struggling to govern artificial intelligence; it is the exception with leverage, and the window to act on it is closing. It holds approximately 88 percent of global platinum-group metal reserves, critical inputs to parts of the semiconductor and data-center supply chains that make AI infrastructure possible. It hosts the largest data-center market on the continent. Its existing hyperscaler relationships give it procurement leverage that most African states will never have. And a major geopolitical contest over AI infrastructure is being fought on its soil right now, between Chinese and American technology companies competing for control of the systems that will underpin an entire continentโs public sector. In physics, leverage requires three things: a fulcrum, a lever arm, and the ability to apply force. The Bushveld Complex, the worldโs largest platinum-group metal deposit, is the fulcrum: a mineral endowment that gives South Africa a position in the semiconductor supply chain that no other African state holds. The since-withdrawn draft policy is the lever arm. The unresolved โOPTIONโ provisions in the policy are where force would be applied. Without a policy that specifies what South Africa wants in return for market access, the lever arm sits unused, and the weight of two of the worldโs largest technology ecosystems settles exactly where those ecosystems want it to settle. This makes South Africa a global test case. Not because its proposed means of governance is exemplary, but because it is the one developing country with enough structural leverage to negotiate genuinely different terms, and the one that is choosing, through inaction, not to. The recent announcement of a new panel to update the draft policy is an important opportunity. But the deeper failure is not that an AI policy contained bad references. It is that no verification process caught them before the document entered the public domain. That is a systems problem, not merely a political one. It points to a missing layer in how governments are adopting AI. The contest already underway Last year, Huawei pitched an emerging-product bundle to tech executives across the continent. Huawei was now bundling access to DeepSeekโs large language model with its own cloud and storage infrastructure. The price differential was starkโin some cases by more than 90 percent. At the same time, Microsoft announced plans to spend ZAR 5.4 billion ($300 million) by the end of 2027 on cloud and AI infrastructure in South Africa, building on a prior ZAR 20.4 billion investment. Google, Amazon Web Services, and Oracle already have cloud regions in the country. According to one analysis, the countryโs data-center market was valued at US $2.16 billion in 2024, the largest in Africa. These are not commercially neutral investments. Huaweiโs infrastructure reach has been explicitly linked to Chinese strategic objectives, including a documented track record of providing governments with surveillance infrastructure through its Safe Cities network. U.S. hyperscaler investment comes with its own dependency structure: closed models, pricing set unilaterally, and terms of access that no African government has meaningfully shaped. South Africa is being asked to choose between these dependency models without a policy that specifies what it wants in return. The leverage it has There is a particular irony in South Africaโs position. The country whose mines supply platinum-group metals essential to semiconductor manufacturing, and through them to AI compute, has drafted a policy that treats it as a consumer of AI systems rather than a stakeholder in their governance. South Africa digs up the minerals that make AI possible. It has no say over the AI built from them. The AI triad framework covers algorithms, compute, and data. South Africa has no frontier model development capacity. South Africa holds significant data assets in financial services, health care, and agriculture, with no clear framework for their sovereign management. South Africa possesses PGM (Platinum Group Metals) leverage of global significance on the compute axis, currently being transferred without meaningful condition. It also has exceptionally high solar irradiance and significant renewable-energy potential. A country that can offer both critical mineral inputs and the energy to power the infrastructure those minerals help build occupies a negotiating position of unusual strength. The Draft Policy proposes no minimum terms for hyperscaler investment, no data sovereignty requirements, no technology transfer conditions and no compute visibility mechanism. Multiple provisions are explicitly left unresolved, marked โOPTION,โ including the most consequential choices about how governance will function. Infrastructure decisions made now determine what is renegotiable later, and the answer is: very little. Three futures, one default The three infrastructure futures on offer each create a structurally different form of dependency, and only one creates sovereign capability. The Huawei-hosted DeepSeek integration offers low cost and open-source weights, but with data stored on infrastructure potentially accessible under Chinese legal frameworks, creating surveillance dependency in a pattern already documented across Africa. The second is U.S. closed-model dependency: higher capability, more reliable data protection, but complete API dependency on developers abroad. The third is locally hosted open-weight infrastructure: models governed under South African data-sovereignty rules, on infrastructure subject to minimum terms, developed with South African data. As Nathan Lambert at Interconnects has observed, open-weight models are likely the only realistic way to get sovereign AI off the ground as a real effort, enabling local communities and economies to integrate meaningfully with the technology. But this requires procurement conditions, not goodwill. What binding governance looks like The GovAI โGoverning Through the Cloudโ framework identifies four roles compute providers should accept as conditions of operating at scale: securers (protecting model weights and training data), record keepers (maintaining infrastructure usage logs), verifiers (confirming customer compliance with safety standards) and enforcers (restricting access when violations occur). These are operational requirements, not theoretical categoriesโspecific, enforceable, and well within the bargaining power of a market of South Africaโs size and mineral position. A detailed policy analysis submitted to the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) identifies the specific provisions the final policy must contain: mandatory minimum terms for foreign compute infrastructure investments above ZAR 500 million (~$30 million); a compute reporting threshold; a National AI Safety Institute mandate covering defensive monitoring of AI capability accumulation; and National AI Champion Sector designations to create data assets for domestic model development. Each provision converts a structural advantage into a governance instrument before that advantage is foreclosed by market reality. Just as modern software security increasingly depends on knowing what components are inside a systemโmodel provider, training data, compute environment, evaluation methods, update cadence, human review points, and failure-reporting proceduresโpublic-sector AI governance requires a clear account of the stack before deployment, not after a problem surfaces. A public institution that cannot verify the sources in its own AI policy is unlikely to be ready to verify the AI systems it procures, deploys, or regulates. Why this is the continental test case South Africaโs choices will establish a regional precedent for what is commercially negotiable in AI infrastructure. If South Africa negotiates data-sovereignty guarantees and technology-transfer conditions as requirements for hyperscaler investment, it creates a replicable model. If Microsoftโs $300 million investment and Huaweiโs infrastructure expansion proceed on standard commercial terms, as they are currently, it normalizes extractive AI infrastructure across the continent. The lesson is not specific to Africa. Governments everywhere are producing AI strategies while lacking AI assurance infrastructure. South Africa is an early warning, not an isolated case. The public comment period closed when the policy was withdrawn. But a parallel process remains live: the National Treasuryโs Draft General Public Procurement Regulationsโthe legal instrument that will govern every government AI contractโcloses for comment on June 15. Those regulations contain no AI-specific provisions. South Africa has more AI leverage than any country on the continent. Some argue, with force, that governance requirements risk deterring the infrastructure investment South Africa urgently needs: compute capacity, reliable energy, venture capital, and talent retention. That concern deserves a direct answer. Minimum procurement terms, compute reporting thresholds, and technology transfer conditions are not barriers to investment. They are the conditions under which investment serves the host country rather than extracting from it. Infrastructure built without minimum terms produces dependency. Infrastructure built with them produces leverage. To serve the public interest, its AI policy must use it. When late last month News24 reported AI-hallucinated references in the draft AI policy, Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Solly Malatsi withdrew the draft policy. That was a mistake that could cost South Africa and the rest of the continent the initiative on this urgent issue. His more recent constitution of an independent panel is a belated step in the right direction, if it can turn South Africaโs leverage into policy. The panelโchaired by Professor Benjamin Rosman of the Wits Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery Institute, and including Professors Vukosi Marivate and Alison Gillwald of Research ICT Africa and Dr. Jabu Mtsweni of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Researchโhas the technical and governance credibility to produce a stronger document. What it has not yet produced is a timeline. No revised draft has been scheduled. South Africa remains without a formal AI governance framework in the interim.
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Floppy disks are several decades oldโmany of the disks are degrading and the data stored on them is at risk of being lost. In response, Leontien Talboom, a technical analyst at Cambridge University Libraries and Archives, led a roughly year-long project preserving floppy disks called โFuture Nostalgia,โ which concluded in January. Leontien Talboom Leontien Talboom is a technical analyst at Cambridge University Libraries and Archives, where she transfers material from a wide range of storage media to make them accessible to archivists. IEEE Spectrum spoke to Talboom about her work preserving data from Cambridgeโs collection of floppy disks and collecting knowledge about the disks themselves. Why is it important to preserve floppy disks now? Leontien Talboom: Two reasons. First, the physical media is starting to degrade. Floppy disks are made from plastic, but theyโve got a magnetic layer of iron oxide, and thatโs deteriorating. A lot of floppy disks are found in attics or garages, which means they also suffer from mold. Second, a lot of people who developed floppy disks and systems that use floppy disks are starting to retire or pass away, which means that a lot of tacit knowledge is disappearing. Whom did you go to for that tacit knowledge? Talboom: I went to the retro computing community. Their work is more around preserving these machines to keep them running [than] the data that lives on the floppy disk. But they know their stuff about floppy disks. For example, they know that in a lot of the older disks, the inside of the diskโthe doughnutโgets stuck to the top. So if you flex the casing, the doughnut falls down again. If I hadnโt known that, I would have assumed that those disks in our collection were broken or corrupt. What is the most difficult part of working with floppy disks? Talboom: Accessing the files can be quite challenging if we donโt understand the file system. Within libraries and archives, we get a lot of material from machines that are not as well loved. Many of the personal computers that you had at home, such as the Amstrad or ZX Spectrum or BBC Micro, are very well documented. But a bunch of our material comes from business or research systems. Theyโre not as nostalgic for people, so thereโs not as big a community preserving this type of material. Do you have a favorite type of floppy disk? Talboom: Five and a quarter. The weirder the system, the more frustrating and fun it is. I quite like doing that detective work. The Amstrad disk has also really stolen my heart. The popularity of floppy disks is very geographically dependent. Our library, for example, has these Amstrad 3-inch disks. But if you go to the U.S., theyโre really uncommon. They werenโt able to manufacture enough of these drives, and [3.5-inch disks] took over at a certain point. But theyโre really cute. Whatโs the best method for sustainably storing data? Talboom: The main thing is actively looking after it. A lot of the floppy disks we get in the library havenโt been accessed for 20 or 30 years, which means that you need certain special hardware to actually read them, and then work with emulators or other tools to make these file formats accessible. Now that weโve done that work and transferred it, we can monitor it and make sure itโs not suffering from anything like bit rot. We can also make decisions around migrating it to other file formats or working on specific file systems or unknown file formats in more detail.
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Patients who use mobile applications to manage medical conditions including depression and chronic pain might assume the apps have been evaluated by regulatory agencies to be safe and effective. But that isnโt necessarily the case. Most of the more than 55,000 medical apps that claim to diagnose or treat a conditionโor ones that provide clinical decision support, known as โtherapeuticโ appsโhave never been assessed by any trusted neutral bodies or regulatory agencies to evaluate them for technical soundness, ethical design, or clinical benefit. The apps often donโt comply with regional data security and privacy laws to protect peopleโs sensitive health information. Medical apps differ from traditional wellness apps, which provide users with insights into becoming healthier by, for example, tracking fitness activities, monitoring blood pressure, and analyzing sleep patterns. There is no reliable way to verify that therapeutic apps deliver the results they indicate. To help ensure such apps are credible, the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) recently launched the IEEE Global Medical Mobile App Assessment and Registry. The publicly searchable directory is designed to list apps that have been vetted by experts across several criteria including technical soundness, ethical design, compliance with data security and privacy regulations, and clinical efficacy, which is evidence of a clinical benefit for the patient. โPatients, clinicians, payers, and health care systems often struggle to distinguish clinically meaningful therapeutic apps from those that are simply well-marketed,โ says IEEE Senior Member Yuri Quintana, chair of the assessment and registry program. He is chief of the clinical informatics division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston. โOur goal is to establish a standardized review method using criteria developed by experts.โ Why regulation is lacking Because the apps are intended for medical use without being part of a medical implement, they fall under the designation of software as a medical device (SaMD), according to the International Medical Device Regulators Forum. SaMD is supposed to be regulated by public health agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but the apps have developed and grown in popularity so quickly that regulators havenโt been able to keep up, Quintana says. Some companies have received approval, but most have not, he says. Many users are unaware of the regulatory gap, he says. โSeeing an app from a well-known company often creates the impression that it has been meaningfully vetted for safety and efficacy, even when that is not the case,โ he says. Some companies are using deceptive advertising to sell their product, he adds. Marketing materials might claim that all of a companyโs health apps are certified, even though only one app has been approved by a regulatory body to treat a particular condition. Or the verbiage might imply the company has clinical evidence proving its application works, even though the app has never been tested independently. Another concern is that updated apps arenโt being vetted, says Maria Palombini, IEEE SAโs director of health care and life sciences global practice lead. โThe original app might have received approval from a regulatory agency, but not the updated version,โ Palombini says. โThere could have been significant changes from the original.โ โNot every medical-related app triggers the same regulatory classification or review across jurisdictions,โ Quintana adds. โThat leaves a large gray zone of clinically relevant but lower-risk apps that havenโt undergone an independent assessment. The IEEE registry was created to help fill these gaps. โIEEE is the best organization to address this problem because this is fundamentally a standards, trust, interoperability, and conformity assessment challenge,โ he says. IEEE โis the worldโs largest technical professional organization, with deep expertise in developing globally recognized standards including in health care, cybersecurity, AI ethics, and interoperability.โ โThrough the IEEE Conformity Assessment Program, we already run rigorous assessment and registry programs,โ Palombini says. โOur neutral, consensus-driven, multidisciplinary approachโbringing together clinicians, regulators, developers, and ethicists without commercial biasโmakes IEEE uniquely positioned to create trustworthy global guardrails that can scale across jurisdictions and support regulatory harmonization.โ How the registry works The assessment framework was developed by a multidisciplinary group of 35 volunteer experts from 10 countries, Quintana says. The panel includes academics, AI experts, app developers, clinicians, ethicists, mental health experts, patient advocates, regulators, researchers, technologists, and those who assess safety in health care. The registry is for any app used for clinical care or therapeutics that claims to demonstrate a medical benefit. That includes apps designed for cardiology, diabetes, mental health, neurology, oncology, rehabilitation, and respiratory diseases, Quintana says. Initially, he says, the focus will be on apps that aim to treat mental health conditions, given the large number of offerings in that area and the registry committeeโs expertise. The submission of apps is voluntary. There is no government mandate that requires a company to use the IEEE registry. The products will be evaluated against about 150 consensus-based criteria across three major areas: Clinical efficacy including therapeutic effectiveness, any sustained benefits, risk management, comparison to standard care, user engagement, and real clinical value. Technical soundness including accessibility, privacy and security, error handling, interoperability, AI governance, usability, and operational quality. Ethical design including bias prevention, patient consent, data governance, conflict-of-interest transparency, responsible use of AI and large language models, and prioritization of public health benefits. IEEE charges a nonrefundable submission fee that covers the cost of the assessment plus the registryโs annual subscription for the first year. Developers first must demonstrate they are a legally established entity before they can complete the app publisher registration form and then submit documentation and attestations about the product. The IEEE review of an app is estimated to take six to eight weeks, Palombini says. The assessment results will be privately shared with the app publisher, she says, and to be listed in the registry, an app must achieve more than 85 percent compliance in each category. Upgraded apps must be submitted and reassessed, Palombini says. Similar to how users are notified when an app on their smart devices has , the registry will be notified when listed apps have a new update available, she says. Applicants who do not pass the assessment are to receive feedback explaining why. They will be given an opportunity to make changes or provide additional documentation, Palombini says. โItโs a pretty methodological process, with checks and balances,โ Quintana says. โWeโre being very transparent about the process.โ Approved apps added to the registry receive an IEEE certification badge and submission identifier, which the company can display on its website, app store listings, and marketing materials. โThe badge serves as visible proof that the app has met the independent, consensus-based assessment for clinical value, technical robustness, and ethical design,โ Quintana says. The registry will be publicly available at no cost, he says. Patients and families seeking safe, trustworthy appsโand payers and insurers evaluating reimbursement potentialโwill find the registry helpful, he says. The application website is open. The public registry page does not yet list a specific count of approved apps because assessments are ongoing. Approved apps and their unique identifiers are to be published when the initial reviews are completed. To learn more, you can watch a webinar recorded in March. The assessment framework that underpins the registry is supporting the formal recognition of IEEE P3962 Standard for Criteria Assessment Framework f
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In the late 1940sโwhen computer engineers were grappling with unreliable hardware and noisy transmission environmentsโa team of engineers inside a modest lab at the University of Manchester, England, confronted a problem so fundamental that it threatened the viability of digital computing itself. Machines could generate bits, but they could not reliably read them back. The inconsistent reading back of memory data did not initially present itself as a grand theoretical challenge. It showed up as something more mundane: inconsistent computing results. Engineers including Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn, and G. E. (Tommy) Thomas traced the failures not to logic errors but to the physical behavior of the machines themselves. The team devised a technique for keeping a transmitter and a receiver synchronized without relying on a separate clock signal. Their innovation, known as Manchester code or phase encoding, encoded each bit with a transition in the middle of the bit period, effectively embedding timing information directly into the data stream to be a self-clocking signal. So, even if the signal degraded or the timing drifted slightly, the receiver could continually keep time based on those regular transitions. By eliminating the need for separate clocks and reducing synchronization errors, Manchester code made data transfer more robust across cables and circuits. Those qualities later made it a natural fit for technologies such as Ethernet and early data storage systems. Its self-clocking nature helped standardize how machines communicate, and it laid the groundwork for modern networking and digital communication protocols. On 13 April 2026, this breakthrough was honored with an IEEE Milestone plaque during a ceremony at the University of Manchester. Dignitaries from IEEE and the university attended the ceremony. Embedding timing in signals Those 1940s Manchester University engineers were working on systems that fed into the Manchester Mark I, one of the first practical stored-program machines. When troubles arose, they used oscilloscopes to probe signals. They found that electrical pulses did not arrive with consistent timing. Memory signals also blurred over time, making them harder to read, and when long runs of identical bits occurred, the waveform flattened into stretches with no transitions. That led to a crucial insight: The problem was not just detecting whether a signal was high or low; the system also lost track of when to sample the signal. Without reliable timing markers, even correctly formed signals were misread. Bits could effectively be lost or miscounted because the system fell out of sync. At first, the engineers tried to tame the hardware. They experimented with stabilizing circuits and more consistent pulse generation, attempting to impose a regular rhythm on an inherently unstable system. But the fixes proved fragile, and the electronics of the day could not maintain the required precision. So the Manchester group took a different approach. If the hardware could not provide a dependable clock, the signal itself would have to carry one. Instead of representing data as static levels, each bit changed state, with a guaranteed transition in the middle. Embedding timing in the signal reduced erratic behavior. Machines were suddenly able to reliably transmit, store, and read back dataโan essential step toward practical stored-program computing. Making signals unmistakable The Manchester code addressed several issues at once. Regular transitions allowed continuous timing recovery. Transitions proved easier to detect than static levels, and long runs of identical bits no longer produced flat, ambiguous waveforms. Rather than fighting the imperfections of early electronics, the design worked with them. From lab curiosity to a global standard What began as a local solution in Manchester shaped digital communication systems for decades, including early Ethernet technology, for which timing and shared-medium communication were central challenges. According to Robert Metcalfe, a member of the team that built the first Ethernet system at Xerox PARC in 1973, he and his colleagues relied on Manchester code. โManchester code solved a fundamental problem for us: timing,โ Metcalfe says, explaining that each bit carried its own clock and removed the need for a global synchronized signal. That self-clocking property wasnโt the only benefit provided by the encoding scheme. On a shared coaxial cable, Manchester encoding did more than provide timing. Each transceiver left the medium undrivenโeffectively โoffโโmost of the time, allowing packets from other machines to pass without interference. Even during transmission, a station drove the signal only about half the time, leaving the line undriven during the other half of each bit cycle. This distinctionโbetween a driven signal and an undriven line, rather than simple 1s and 0sโallowed receivers to recover both data and clock timing while also monitoring the cable for other activity. If a transceiver detected a signal when it expected the line to be undriven, the signal indicated that another station was transmitting at the same time. In other words, the system could detect collisions in real time and respond accordingly. The idea has proven durable far beyond local networks. Manchester code is being used aboard the Voyager spacecraft, which are now cruising through interstellar spaceโunderscoring its reliability in extreme environments. The code also has found its way into everyday consumer electronics. Infrared remote controls for televisions and audio equipment commonly rely on Manchester code through protocols such as RC-5, developed by Philips in the early 1980s. The protocol encodes commands as timed infrared signals transmitted by a handsetโs integrated circuit and LED, allowing devices to reliably interpret button presses even through noise and signal distortion. Manufacturers across Europeโand many in the United Statesโadopted the approach, extending Manchester code into the home. Why the Milestone matters An IEEE Milestone designation recognizes technologies with enduring impact. Manchester code qualifies because it solved a foundational timing problem at a critical moment in computing history. Without a way to embed timing in the data itself, early digital systems would have remained fragile and unreliable. Manchester code helped transform them into dependable machines, and it enabled much of todayโs digital communication. โManchester code solved a fundamental problem for us: timing,โ โRobert Metcalfe, an Ethernet inventor Key participants at the plaque dedication ceremony included Tom Coughlin, 2024 IEEE president; Duncan Ivison, University of Manchester president and vice chancellor, and Nagham Saeed, chair of the IEEE U.K. and Ireland Section. Talks by Kees Schouhamer Immink (the 2017 IEEE Medal of Honor laureate probably best known for his work that made compact discs and other high-density digital media practical) and Peter Green (Manchesterโs deputy dean for the engineering faculty) highlighted the codeโs lasting impact on digital data storage and communications. The IEEE Milestone plaque for the Manchester code reads: โAt this site in 1948โ1949, Manchester code was invented for reliably encoding digital data stored on the Manchester Mark I computerโs magnetic drum. It became a standard for computer magnetic tapes and floppy disks and was used in digital communications, including the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft and early Ethernet networks. It found wide use in domestic remote controllers, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, and many control network standards.โ Administered by the IEEE History Center and supported by donors, the Milestone program recognizes outstanding technical developments worldwide. The IEEE U.K. and Ireland Section sponsored the nomination.
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Cybersecurity consultants have never been more in demand. Information security analyst roles are projected to grow nearly 30 percent between now and 2034, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. More than 15 million cybercrime incidents occurred worldwide in 2024, Statista reported. Data breaches are costly and pose direct safety risks. Statista reported that more than US $10 trillion is spent annually repairing the damage caused by cybercrime, most commonly phishing, spoofing, extortion, and data breaches. In one example in the United States, breathalyzer devices installed in vehicles became disabled, leaving hundreds of drivers stranded, as detailed in an IEEE Spectrum article. To help you acquire the skills you need to distinguish yourself from other cybersecurity job candidates, the IEEE Computer Society offers a โWhat Makes a Great Cybersecurity Consultantโ guide. The 23-page PDF includes hard and soft skills you need, a list of certifications to pursue, and key IEEE cybersecurity conferences for staying updated on developments in the field. The guide includes advice from two cybersecurity experts. John D. Johnson, an IEEE senior member, is the founder and CEO of Aligned Security in Bettendorf, Iowa. Ricardo J. Rodriguez is an associate professor of computer science and systems engineering at the Universidad de Zaragoza, in Spain, who researches digital forensics and other cybersecurity topics. โTechnology, remote work, and a shortage of skilled workers make this the ideal time to consider becoming a cybersecurity consultant,โ Johnson says in the guide. โConsulting can give you the flexibility, variety, and control over where you want your career to go.โ Hard and soft skills At a minimum, cybersecurity professionals should have a general understanding of IT including operating systems, communication protocols, network architecture, and programming languages such as C++, Java, and Python. They also should be well-versed in security auditing, firewall management, penetration testing, and encryption technologies. The principles of ethical hacking and coding would be handy as well. โTo be able to defend a system well, you first have to know how to attack it,โ Rodriguez says. The guide explains that there are now more technologies available to help cybersecurity consultants monitor threats and protect systems. They include security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) platforms, which automate workflows to collect security data, streamline incident response, and automate repetitive tasks. Rodriguez points to advances in domain name system security extensions (DNSSEC), which uses digital signatures based on public-key cryptography to strengthen the authentication of the domain name system. By validating data authenticity, DNSSEC safeguards against attacks such as DNS spoofing and guarantees that users connect to the correct IP address. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and quantum computing will increasingly be used to help thwart cyberattacks, the guide suggests. AI is expected to enhance the quality of data analysis, Rodriguez says. Although hard skills are important, soft skills are just as crucial, according to the guide. Critical thinking, project management, flexibility, teamwork, and organizational and presentation skills are essential. Itโs not enough to be good at analyzing security vulnerabilities; you also need to clearly describe the situation and explain possible solutions. โSoft skills are important to achieve good team cohesion,โ Rodriguez says, โbecause consultants often lead diverse teams from within their clientโs organization.โ โItโs essential,โ Johnson adds, โthat you demonstrate to clients youโre a team player and a capable communicator, and that you meet your commitments.โ Security certifications Possessing security-specific credentials is a valuable way to demonstrate your expertise to potential clients, according to the guide. Because hundreds of certifications are available, Johnson says, pinpointing the most relevant ones can be challenging. Some people focus on theoretical knowledge, while others want to cover practical applications of technology. โSurvey the industry and compare it to your skills,โ Johnson recommends. โDecide what you want to do, and identify where you have gaps in your skills and experience.โ Here are four of the nine certifications listed in the guide that are frequently cited as being important. All the providers are cybersecurity organizations. Certified information security manager. This globally recognized certification from the ISACA is for professionals managing enterprise information security. Certified cloud security professional. Offered by ISC2, this credential validates advanced technical skills in designing, managing, and securing cloud infrastructure. Certified ethical hacker. This certification from the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (C-Council) confirms proficiency in using methods commonly employed by malicious hackers to detect vulnerabilities. Offensive security certified professional. A hands-on, 24-hour certification exam offered by OffSec covers practical testing skills. Additional industry-specific certifications might be required for organizations in finance, government, health care, or manufacturing. Sound general knowledgeโbacked by experience, training, and certificationโis an essential foundation for being a specialist, Johnson says. Conferences and networking opportunities Events sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society can help you learn about the latest research and advancements in cybersecurity: IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, from 18 to 21 May in San Francisco. IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy, from 6 to 10 July in Lisbon. IEEE International Conference on Cyber Security and Resilience, from 3 to 5 August in Lisbon. IEEE Secure Development Conference, from 14 to 16 October in Indianapolis. Conferences can give you insight into the field and let you do some networking, but itโs important to network elsewhere as well, experts say. Consider joining the IEEE Technical Community on Security and Privacy, which connects experts and professionals advancing research in areas such as encryption, operating system security, and data privacy. Learning and meeting people keeps your knowledge sharp and can lead to mentorship opportunities with established cybersecurity consultants, Johnson says. Other IEEE resources The IEEE Computer Societyโs cybersecurity resources page offers a wealth of information including fundamentals, possible career paths, and standards development. To keep you updated on trends, the society publishes IEEE Transactions on Privacy and the IEEE Security and Privacy magazine. In addition to the guide, the IEEE Learning Network offers nearly 30 courses on cybersecurity. And you can find research papers in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library.
More than 30 years ago, in the mountain village of Mbem in northwest Cameroon, the moon and stars in the night sky were the only light young Jude Numfor knew after the sunset. Electricity had not yet reached his rural community. โThere was one person in the village with a petrol generator and a small television,โ Numfor says. โWhen he turned it on, all the children would run to his house and peep through the window.โ That memory became the spark for Numforโs mission: to bring electricity to rural communities like his hometown. To accomplish his goal, in 2006 he cofounded Wireless Light and Power, since renamed Renewable Energy Innovators Cameroon, and he serves as its CEO. REI Cameroon designs, installs, and maintains solar minigrids for rural electrification. The minigrids use photovoltaic technology and battery-energy storage systems to generate electricity at 50 hertz. The electricity is distributed through smart meters. In 2017 the company received a grant from IEEE Smart Village to fund the expansion of REIโs minigrid operations and refine its business model. Smart Village supports projects and organizations bringing electricity and educational and employment opportunities to remote communities worldwide. The program is supported by IEEE societies and donations to the IEEE Foundation. The partnership has led to a collaboration developing open source metering, a free, community-driven way of tracking energy usage. Unlike proprietary utility meters, the system allows users, researchers, and utilities to view, customize, and verify how data is collected, ensuring transparency in billing, consumption tracking, and grid management. Smart Villageโs support has been pivotal, Numfor says: โItโs not just about money. We share ideas, we get advice, and we have made friends. Entrepreneurship is lonely, but with the [Smart Village] community, it is different.โ From teenage tinkerer to entrepreneur Numforโs first experience of life with electricity was in 2001, after moving in with a missionary family in the small village of Allat. They used solar panels to power their whole homeโan unimaginable luxury in Mbem. โI could watch TV, eat ice cream, and turn on lights,โ he says. โIt made me wish my brothers in Mbem had the same opportunity.โ Numforโs curiosity about electricity was ignited when a motion-sensor solar light in the familyโs home stopped working. He tinkered with the device to find out why. โMy missionary family told me to play with it like a toy,โ he says, laughingly. โI replaced the dead battery with a motorcycle battery and was able to bring the power back for the night.โ Jude Numfor [right] testing a rechargeable solar lantern, which aimed to replace hazardous kerosene lampsโknown locally as โbush lamps.โREI Cameroon His missionary parents encouraged Numfor to study technology and engineering on his own, as none of the countryโs universities offered solar energy educational programs at the time. They built him a library and stocked it with books on engineering, management, and entrepreneurship. In 2006, armed with his new knowledge, Numfor launched Wireless Light and Power with a friend, Ludwig Teichgraber. The nonprofit aimed to replace hazardous kerosene lampsโknown locally as โbush lampsโโwith rechargeable solar lanterns. These solar lanternsโcalled โlight packsโโwere built locally by Numfor and a team of 11 young Cameroonians using PVC pipes, nickel-metal hydride batteries, and LED bulbs. Families rented the lamps for a small fee, swapping discharged lamps for fully charged ones at solar-powered charging kiosks when they ran out of power. The kiosks then recharged the depleted lamps, making them available for the next swap. โThe solar lantern was safer and cleaner, plus it gave children a chance to read at night,โ Numfor explains. โPeople loved them.โ Between 2006 and 2010, his team replicated the model across several villages. But when the global financial crisis hit in 2008, donor support dwindled, forcing the organization to evolve. โWe pivoted from being an NGO to a commercial venture,โ he says. โThatโs how REI was born.โ Building solar minigrids to serve community needs The new companyโs goal was to move away from the lanterns and toward full electrification of communities. Villagersโ aspirations changed, Numfor says, as they now wanted to power their TVs, music systems, and mobile phones. In response, in 2010, REI developed one of the first solar minigrids in West Africa. Using locally procured components, the prototype supplied steady power to six households. The minigrid system used 12 123-watt solar photovoltaic panels manufactured by Sharp, 16 12-volt 100 ampere-hour automatic gain control lead acid batteries, and a Xantrex charge controller and inverter. Locally sourced wooden light poles were erected to distribute electricity throughout the village. REI charged each household a fee for the electricity. โIt was a product-market-fit moment,โ Numfor says. โPeople immediately asked, โWhen can we get this, too?โโ The word-of-mouth, grassroots growth caught the attention of global partners. Numfor connected with Smart Village and in 2017, REI Cameroon received its first seed grant from the program. With that funding, Numfor was able to grow organically and attract additional grants, including one from the U.S. Trade Development Agency (USTDA), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energyโs National Renewable Energy Laboratory. REI has since expanded to six villages, providing power to more than 1,000 households and businesses. With a dedicated team of 16 people, the company operates in multiple regions of the country, each with unique terrain, languages, and cultural dynamics. โIt wasnโt easy,โ he acknowledges. โIโm not an academic personโI had to learn everything by doing. [Smart Village] helped me structure the project and grow as an entrepreneur.โ Today, Numfor pays it forward by sharing his Smart Village experience and mentoring new entrepreneurs. Launching a coalition for smart metering Minigrids canโt operate efficiently without clarifying operating rules to ensure quality service requirements and consumer protection, while also enabling reliable and effective monitoring of the system, Numfor says. โWe need to know how power is being used, detect problems early, and manage the minigrid from a distance,โ he explains. Existing commercial smart-meter providers offer limited and proprietary solutions. One major provider left the market, making their technology infrastructure obsolete. โItโs risky for an entire sector to depend on a few companies for such a critical technology,โ Numfor says. In 2025, with the help of the Smart Village technical community, Numfor convened a consortium of open-source power advocates, including the Africa Mini-Grid Developers Association, EnAccess, Energy IOT, and NESL. The goal was to develop an open smart metering system that is accessible, transparent, and sustainable for all energy providers. โThese organizations are collaborating as Open Advanced Metering Infrastructure [OpenAMI], which is about giving control back to the people who deliver the energy,โ he says. Scaling for impact Numforโs passion has grown from bringing light to local rural communities to bringing light to his entire country. Just 54 percent of Cameroonโs citizens have access to electricity, according to the International Energy Agency. For Numfor, the challenge is not just technologicalโitโs social and economic as well. โElectricity is the most important enabler of education and economic growth today,โ he says. โWhen you have power, you unlock everything else.โ โElectricity changed my life. Now I want to make sure every child can grow up with that same light.โ โJude Numfor Across the villages where REI has installed sustainable electricity solutions, small businesses are flourishing. Barbershops hum with community chatter, food vendors can preserve perishables, and entrepreneurs run companies such as phone-charging stations and small mills. โSome villages even have laundromats now,โ Numfor says proudly. โElectricity creates jobs and changes mindsets.โ Still, it has been a bumpy journey. It wasnโt until 2025 that REI obtained its official authorization (license) from Cameroonโs government to produce and distribute electricity in off-grid areas using solar minigrids. This was a major milestone because REI is one of the first private enterprises in the country to receive such authorization. โWe were stuck between pilot projects and growth,โ he explains. โOur projects were successful, and there was community demand for more, but to grow, we needed investors who require legal guarantees before committing funds. Now we can scale up and attract investors.โ REI plans to expand its reach dramatically, beginning with 134 new villages identified through a feasibility study supported by the USTDA. Their long-term goal is to electrify 760 villages across Cameroon by 2031. While authorization opens doors, financing remains one of REIโs biggest challenges. โThe minigrid space doesnโt attract venture capitalists easily,โ Numfor notes. โOur return on investment is under 15 percent, so itโs not a typical tech startup model. The real return here is the impactโ on the community. He hopes to attract investors who understand that access to electricity drives education, health care, and entrepreneurship. โThere are people out there who want to make meaningful change,โ he says. โWe just need to connect with them. When you electrify a village, you never know who the next innovator will be. Maybe itโs another kid like me, looking through a window, dreaming.โ Finding skilled staff is another challenge, Numfor says. To address this, REI developed an intensive recruitment and training process. โIt used to take years to find the right people,โ he says. โNow, we can identify who fits our company culture within six months.โ Numforโs wife, Angela Taliklong, who joined the venture in 2010, now oversees administration and human resources. A brighter Cameroon and beyond Numfor offers simple words of advice to other impact-driven entrepreneurs: Keep moving. โOne of my mistakes early on was trying to be perfect,โ he says. โI was spending time improving prototypes instead of increasing the number of our project installations and scaling how many communities we could electrify. You must keep momentum. Donโt wait until everything is perfect before you move forward.โ That mindset, rooted in resilience and experimentation, has defined his journey. Rajan Kapur, president of Smart Village, says Numfor is a โshining exampleโ of the programโs vision: โscalable and enduring impact through local entrepreneurs, local procurement, and community engagement based on the use of IEEE technology in underserved communities.โ With the ongoing Smart Village partnership, Numfor is determined to bring light and opportunity to every corner of Cameroon, and beyond. He already has launched REI Nigeria. โElectricity changed my life,โ he says. โNow I want to make sure every child can grow up with that same light.โ