From February 28^th to March 3^rd, Rwanda hosted the 2023 FIRST and AfricaCERT Symposium for cybersecurity practitioners from Africa and the Arab regions.

The symposium attracted more than 200 participants from 48 countries to share experience, gain expertise and learn global best practices in the fight against cyber threats.

The symposium, co-organized by FIRST (Forum for Incident Response and Security Teams), AfricaCERT (The African Forum of Computer Incident Response Teams), and the National Cyber Security Authority (NCSA), comprised of trainings and plenary sessions to discuss the latest trends in incident response and prevention, cyber risk management and cyber policy issues.

Minister of ICT and Innovation, Paula Ingabire, in officially opening the event said that safe connections cannot be an afterthought while driving internet connectivity to enable digital advancement across various sectors.

“This symposium is covering technical trainings in different cyber security domains over the past two days, but beyond the training, the experience sharing is equally important as we think of safeguarding our collective cyber space,” she noted.

Ingabire added: “We have heavily invested in ensuring that our citizens are connected to enable innovation, ease of doing business, facilitate transactions, access to education for all, however, security has to be at the core of these many interventions.”

Sherif Hashem, Chair of the Board of Directors, FIRST, emphasized that collaborative initiatives in Africa such as these, were imperative to winning the fight against cyber threats.

He also added that there is a lot of work to be done in capacity building and legal and regulatory frameworks. He specifically cited the need for African countries to sign the Malabo convention on cyber security and personal data protection.

“We need to work on Africa’s cybersecurity capacity and know-how. Our most significant weapon against cybercrimes is through having human skills. We need to have an empowered African who understands technology and how to deal with threats,” he added.

According to him, enhancing capacity has much to do with building partnerships among countries for expertise, tools sharing, and high-level training, among other aspects.

Jean Robert Hountomey, Executive Director, AfricaCERT, cited that African countries are at different stages in dealing with cyber security issues, which shines light on the importance of coming together to share the best practices and provide the necessary help to address some of the pressing challenges.

Ghislaine Kayigi, Chief Cybersecurity Standards Officer, NCSA, said that securing infrastructure systems and data requires joint efforts of stakeholders including the academia, public and private sector to make sure that there are skills and the capacity to deal with the evolving cyber threats landscape.

“In Rwanda, we need tools and skilled people on board as we continue to put in place preventive and protective measures to counter the cyber threats,” she added.

Rwanda is actively contributing to the enhancement of global cybersecurity coordination, particularly within the African continent, through hosting cybersecurity events such as the 2023 FIRST and AfricaCERT Symposium for Africa and Arab regions, which contributes to ensuring a safer internet for all.