core Internet security

To facilitate implementation of the Convention, the African Union Commission (AUC) asked the Internet Society (ISOC) to jointly develop the Internet Infrastructure Security Guidelines for Africa. The Guidelines were created with contributions from regional and global Internet infrastructure security experts, government and CERT representatives, and network and ccTLD DNS operators. As one of the cybersecurity experts involved in the development of these Guidelines, I am proud and deeply humbled to have made a contribution.

The Guidelines emphasize the importance of the multistakeholder model and a collaborative security approach in protecting Internet infrastructure. The Guidelines put forward four essential principles of Internet infrastructure security: Awareness, Responsibility, Cooperation, and adherence to Fundamental Rights and Internet Properties.

These critical actions are tailored to the African cybersecurity environment’s unique features: a shortage of skilled human resources; limited resources (including financial) for governments and organizations to allocate for cyber security; limited levels of awareness of cyber security issues among stakeholders; and a general lack of awareness of the risks involved in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

Only with ongoing multistakeholder efforts from the African Internet community can the continent overcome its challenges, embrace its opportunities, and become an Internet world leader.

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.