- It aims at tackling safety challenges emerging from Africa’s rapid digitalization.
- Intensified user education and behavior change are at the forefront.
- Online safety and privacy of users are key.
A community of organizations in Africa that work to safeguard the safety and security of Africans in cyberspace through cybersecurity awareness has launched the African Cybersmart Network.
The launch comes at a time when society is increasingly becoming digitalized.
During the launch of the African Cybersmart Network in Nairobi recently, East Africa Coordinator of the Africa Cybersmart Network, Jackie Lidubwi, said it is vital that all the necessary security measures be put in place to protect people as they use technology for various purposes.
Cybersecurity awareness
“Cybersecurity experts often talk about the end user being the weakest link against cybersecurity threats. This basically means there is a need for intensified user education and behavior change.
That is exactly what the African Cybersmart Network seeks to achieve,” said Ms. Lidubwi.
She further hopes that safety challenges emerging from Africa’s rapid digitalization will be tackled through the African Cybersmart Network’s collaborative efforts.
“The African Cybersmart Network is basically a forum through which organizations that are currently working in silos, will join hands to undertake programs that will have a greater and wider impact,” she noted.
African Cybersmart Network seeks to advance cybersecurity awareness in Africa through four different ways.
They are collaborative knowledge exchange among cybersecurity awareness advocates, training and capacity building, collaborative resource mobilization and allocation among network member organizations, joint program and campaign development, and implementation.
Online literacy
During the launch, African Cybersmart Network Lead Coordinator David Moepeng of Cybersmart Botswana said that part of the network’s responsibility is to create online literacy.
He noted that they teach communities how to use safety tools through homes, schools, and village meetings.
In those meetings, they also engage administrative officers like chiefs and village elders during their public barazas to create awareness in the rural areas.
“In Botswana, we have library workshops across the country because the government has connected the internet in libraries. A lot of young people go to libraries not to read books but sometimes just to sit outside the library because they can access the Wi-Fi,” he said of their literacy program.
Membership
Moepeng further noted that membership is open to non-profit organizations and Civil Society Organizations undertaking cybersecurity awareness campaigns in Africa.
According to him, once an organization’s membership is approved, they are expected to adopt and implement the Cybersmart Program in their countries.
The member organizations’ benefits include training on cybersecurity awareness and capacity building for different groups of society that can do advocacy by having them participate in program development and implementation.
“We train those non-governmental organizations on consumer rights to understand the issues in digital spaces around consumer safety.
Increasingly, consumer rights, privacy and protection issues are emerging due to using different platforms within various countries,” said Moepeng.
He also noted that African Cybersmart Network has different components targeting different online users.
Online safety
He adds that the network has developed initiatives like Cybersmart Challenge, Cybersmart Champions, Cybersmart Kidz, Cybersmart Schools and Cybersmart SMES that any member organization can adopt and launch in their respective countries.
All the member organizations learn and teach about the different techniques that can be used to promote behavioral change within the continent’s societies.
For example, Cybersmart Kidz targets children.
This follows the increase in online gaming, which most children love and spend most of their time playing.
He says it is a problem that exists in most homes, but not all parents know how to develop parental guidelines that can protect their little ones and teenagers while online.
“We have a group of psychology graduates who know how to promote behavioral changes and engage with teenagers and speak the language they understand. We train teachers and school staff and then they develop and run their own programs and raise awareness within their schools,” he explained.
Kenya is one of the African countries where most government services have been digitalized through an e-citizen platform.
Because of digitalization, most citizens now apply for documents and other government services online using their smartphones, laptops, or even the cyberspace around them.
Data and the law
While this is a step that makes it easier for citizens to access these services, online experts say it also puts citizens in danger, just as it does in other countries, if their data is used for purposes other than those for which they are asked in those platforms.
“One of the advantages that we have is that we now have a data commissioner and a data protection law that guides her work in terms of looking at how data is being managed,” said Grace Githaiga from Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet).
KICTANet is a multi-stakeholder platform that brings together different ecosystem stakeholders interested in ICT policy and regulation.
Data Protection Act of 2018 mandates the appointment of a data commissioner, which Kenya already has.
Ms. Githaiga says that despite being in office for less than three years, the commissioner has accomplished a great deal.
Kenya also has a Cybersecurity Act that imposes penalties for data breaches.
She adds that the two online laws are very important and she is urging Kenyans to learn how they can protect themselves digitally.
According to her, the number one responsibility of staying safe online is on every online user.
“Right now, if you are abused online, you can report it to the police and the platforms that have been used to abuse you.
If you go to their settings, they have ways of how you can report and that is very important,” she says.
KICTANet co-convened the digital rights forum 2023, where discussions about digital rights happened last week in Nairobi.
Ms. Githaiga said online safety is an important conversation the country must have, especially regarding freedom of expression and how to balance it because it comes with responsibilities to avoid the government from regulating online presence.
While there are many digital rights, Ms. Githaiga says that it is crucial that every online user has to conduct themselves online without infringing on other people’s rights.
She told Scholar Media Africa that cybersecurity and data protection issues are digital rights that people need to understand.
“How do you express yourself without regulation that does not allow you to express yourself? There are all those things that you conduct online, how do you conduct them online in a secure safe space?” she demanded.
Cybersecurity experts also expressed concern that, although most African countries have passed laws governing internet usage, enforcing those laws remains difficult.
They argue that the failure to enforce them is due to the rapid evolution of technology.
The problem with not enforcing the laws they claim is seen in the large number of internet users who continue to face cyberbullying, abuse, and online harassment across the continent with no action taken against the abusers.
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They are now urging African governments to hold big tech companies accountable, just as Australia is forcing them to appear before lawmakers and justify their strategies to protect internet users.
