Transcript ICC Survey of CERT Capacity in Africa July 2010 Joseph Richardson Senior Fellow, ICC.

ICC Survey of CERT Capacity in Africa
July 2010
Joseph Richardson
Senior Fellow, ICC


Develop a better understanding of cyber
security and CERT capacity in Africa.
Input from all participants;
◦
◦
◦
◦
Governments
Private Sector
Civil Society
Academia

The African Union (AU)
◦ An international organization consisting of 53
African states whose objectives include to
coordinate and intensify cooperation for
development.

The World Information Technology and
Services Alliance (WITSA)
◦ A consortium of over 60 information technology (IT)
industry associations from economies around the
world.

Incident management

Legal infrastructure

National Strategy for Cyber security
◦ Which of 23 identified potential functions associated
with incident management (CERT activity) are being
performed in country?
◦ On a scale of 0-5 what progress has been made on six
(6) key cybercrime elements (from review of laws to
international cooperation)?
◦ What other laws associated with cyber security have
been addressed (privacy, data protection, commercial
law, etc)?
◦ Which of 17 potential national objectives for cyber
security are included in a national strategy or being done
outside such a strategy?

26 valid responses from 12 countries
◦ 35 % government employees
◦ 50 % private sector
◦ 11 % academia
◦ 4 % civil society



22 % report their country has a CERT with
national responsibility (N-CERT)
30 % report their country is addressing 16 or
more of the 23 cyber incident management
functions.
61 % report their country is addressing 6 or
fewer of the 23 functions.

For each of the 6 cyber crime functions
◦ 45 % of respondents reported no action.
◦ 5% of respondents reported completed action.

For other legal infrastructures associated with
cyber security
◦ 50 % reported no action on any of the other legal
infrastructures

35 % have a national strategy
◦ Addressing on average 62% of the 17 objectives.

65 % have no national strategy
◦ Yet they are addressing 13 % of the 17 objectives

Efforts are underway in most countries of
Africa to address cyber security providing a
base upon which to build.
◦ Including across a range of N-CERT functions


An N-CERT is correlated with activity across
the full range of incident management
functions.
The development of a national cyber security
strategy is correlated with a comprehensive
response to cyber security.