Government creates cybersecurity team to tame attacks

ICT Cabinet Secretary. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

The government has put together a multi-stakeholder cybersecurity roundtable aimed at addressing cybersecurity challenges in the country.

The Ministry of Information, Communication, and Digital Economy (ICT) in a circular on Saturday, July 29 said the team will comprise actors from both the public and private sectors who will collaboratively come up with innovative ways to deal with cyber threats and ensure cyber security is amped even as the digital space evolves.

"In today's digital world, cyber threats are a global and local concern for individuals, businesses, and nations alike. It is in this spirit that the ministry has put together a multi-stakeholder cybersecurity roundtable with membership from Government and private sector to discuss cyber threats management."

The involved parties will share information on emerging cyber threats and come up with swift cyber incident response and mitigation strategies.

Additionally, those in the private sector will assist the Government in closing the cybersecurity gaps by providing training and expertise to government agencies and aid in cyber incidents response and recovery process.

This collaboration will also include a private-public cyber drill exercise and cyber simulations to test incidents response capabilities of organisations in both the public and private sectors.

The team is also expected to come up with cybersecurity policies that will protect them from emerging and current threats.

The move, government says, will boost the country's security against cyber-attacks.

These measures are in response to a recent cyber-attack that paralyzed the operation of some of the public and private facilities in the country for days.

Some of the affected services included the e-Citizen platform that hosts a myriad of government services, and some Safaricom functions e.g M-Pesa transactions.