The Internet is becoming critical infrastructure for Africa. Across the continent, Africans increasingly depend on the Internet to communicate, socialize, and most importantly to conduct their day-to-day jobs and activities. A major outage of the Internet infrastructure is a prevailing fear for network operators, governments and users alike. But, has Africa secured its Internet Infrastructure?
I just finished participating in a panel discussion titled ‘Internet Infrastructure Security in Africa’ at the African Internet Summit (AIS) in Gaborone, Botswana. We sought to identify the major security challenges facing the Internet infrastructure driving Africa’s digital economies. This panel is a precursor to my participation in developing guidelines that will serve African countries in their efforts to protect their Internet Infrastructure from present and future threats.
My speaking points were specifically about existing mechanisms to combat various threats, and the cooperation between key stakeholders to defend their organizations/countries from and ever changing threat landscape. I also described what types of structures were needed at the national and regional level based on best practices from around the world.
Niel Harper 