CA steps up measures to contain cyber attacks

KISUMU

Sunday, August 6, 2023

KNA by Chris Mahandara

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), has scaled up measures to safeguard the country against cyber-attacks.

This follows a sharp rise in the number of attacks from 7.7 million in 2018 to 444 million in 2023, ranking Kenya among the top three targeted countries in Africa.

CA Internal Audit Director, Rosalid Muriithi, said the efforts target to build capacity for institutions to disrupt cyber threats, fix newly discovered vulnerabilities and counter emerging threats.

The National Computer Incident Response Team (KE-CIRT), domiciled at the Authority Headquarters, she said, was working round the clock to ensure that Kenyans are protected.

“Cyber threats are unpredictable. You cannot plan how it will happen and when it will happen. Our team at CA works 24hrs to monitor and give feedback to institutions that are being hacked, so that they can be able to enhance their systems,” she said.

Focus, she said, was on safeguarding the digital economy from data breaches, hacking attempts, identity theft and malware attacks.

Speaking in Kisumu during the awards ceremony of the Kisumu edition of the Communications Authority Cybersecurity bootcamp and hackathon series 2023, Muriithi said the initiative targets to instill skills in ICT students to boost the country’s capacity to address emerging threats in the sector.

“It is envisaged that through these capacity building sessions the Authority will contribute towards building a pool of cybersecurity professionals who can meaningfully participate in addressing emerging threats in the changing ICT sector,” she said.

Through partnership with Huawei and Kenya Cybersecurity Forensics Association (KCSFA), the bootcamp and hackathon series 2023 has attracted 6, 000 students.

“We have been running this in Nairobi, but this time we have scaled it up to the counties. The winners here in Kisumu will meet with winners from the other regions in October in Mombasa for the finals,” she said.

The competitors were taken through Huawei Certification e-learning course on cyber security, virtual laboratory exercises and mentorship from experts.

KCSFA Vice Chairman, Fredrick Wahome, said the initiative was a milestone in the creation of cybersecurity experts.

Wahome said the rapid technology growth and internet penetration in the country called for local solutions to address emerging threats.

“The bootcamp and hackathon targets to activate the innovation spirit in students so that they can come-up with local solutions to address cyber security,” he said.

“As a country we don’t have any locally made cyber security solutions, We need to develop our own anti-virus and firewall to mitigate the rising threats,” he added.

He further asked universities and other institutions of learning to align their ICT programmes with the emerging trends in the sector to churn out graduates who are up to the task.

Courtesy ; K. N. A