The Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and Uganda Computer Emergency Response Team (UG-CERT) with the support of AfricaCERT and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) are hosting a regional Cybersecurity Summit for Africa to facilitate the exchange of best practices, experiences and lessons learned on security baselines for digital infrastructure and security for emerging technologies.
The summit is being held in Kampala and will end on Thursday 23.
UCC Ag. Executive Director Eng Irene Kaggwa-Sewankambo said that in the progressively interconnected global landscape, cybersecurity is becoming paramount for the safeguarding of delicate data, fortification of vital infrastructure, and bolstering trust in our digital transactions.
Eng. Kaggwa-Sewankambo said that the summit provides a platform to respond to emerging Cybersecurity threats and that experts who are in the country for the weeklong summit will share notes and explore approaches to assess cyber resilience of critical importance with a focus on infrastructure and application security for digital financial services.
“This meeting provides a platform for cybersecurity experts from our region and beyond to share experiences and best practices on readiness, resilience and coordination regarding how to safeguard critical infrastructure and respond to emerging cybersecurity threats,” the Ag. ED said.
In her opening remarks, Eng. Kaggwa-Sewankambo said the interconnected nature of today ‘s world calls for global collaboration to effectively deal with the challenges of cybersecurity in partner states.
“Whereas growth in digital finance is welcome, this also broadens the scope for cyber criminals to exploit vulnerabilities in the digital financial services (DFS) ecosystem, potentially leading to financial and reputational loss and erosion of public confidence in these services,” she said.
The ED urged experts to come up with mechanisms to always address evolving issues to do with digital financial services.
“All of us are familiar with digital financial services, especially mobile money, and we see that if fraud increases, then people fear to use these services. So, trust and confidence in this axis is very important,” she added.
Eng. Paul Odoi, the UCC Board Member said the government of Uganda’s vision is to leverage ICTs to drive economic transformation and improve people’s lives.
“The government has invested significantly in ICT infrastructure and created an enabling environment through robust, legal, regulatory framework. ITC’s are now integral pillars of our social, economic transformative agenda,” he said.
Eng. Odoi noted that Uganda’s digital transformation roadmap has five critical pillars aimed to ensure that digital services are safe and trusted.
“Our Digital Transformation Roadmap identified Five pillars that are critical in attaining Digital Uganda Vision and Pillar three covers; Cybersecurity, Data Protection and Privacy. This aims to ensure that digital services are safe, secure and trusted.” Eng. Odoi said.
The summit is expected to provide a platform for cybersecurity experts from the Africa region to strengthen their readiness, resilience and coordination in response to safeguard critical infrastructure and respond to emerging threats in the cybersecurity landscape.
Robust cybersecurity measures are imperative to protect businesses from Cybercrime, which manifests in various forms through the use of computers or the Internet. Common cases of Cybercrime include phishing, identity theft, fraud, cyberstalking or malicious disruption of operations.
According to the African Cyber Security Report 2016, banking is the leading risk sector.
