Africa-Press – Botswana. Youth have been urged to equip themselves with the necessary knowledge, skills and sophisticated technology to navigate the complexities of the digital world securely as well as contribute to a stronger and more secure digital future.
Speaking during the Cyber security challenge/competetion (BW Cyber Clash) held in Gaborone on Friday, the chairperson, Ms Avita Tlhobogang, said technology was evolving and hence the need to be proactive about securing sophisticated technology.
Ms Tlhobogang said rapid evolution of technology brought about advancements and new challenges that could introduce vulnerabilities and create new attack surfaces for cyber criminals to exploit hence securing sophisticated technology was crucial.She urged youth involved to understand complexities and implement robust security measures to mitigate risks. She said BW cyber clash was an effort to bridge the cyber skills gap in Botswana adding that the initiative seeks to empower youth, individuals with industry-led expertise.
She said the competition was aimed at equipping and building capacity among fresh graduates as well as completing tertiary students. She reiterated that empowering youth with cybersecurity skills was crucial in today›s digital age where cyber threats were prevalent.
She underscored that BW Cyber-Clash, powered by Serianu Limited and African Cyber Security was an initiative aimed at fostering talent and innovation in the cyber-security domain among youth in Botswana. She said the motivation to have BW cyber clash was brought about by a Cyber security skills gap research carried out in 2019.
She said they had found ‘wild and wide’ gaps that needed addressing and therefore had to engage the youth to up skill them on the missing links.“We saw it fit to engage local communities, Google Developer Student Club and Google Developer Groups Gaborone for this challenge,” she said, adding that the collaboration seeks to narrow the gap highlighted by the industry, in the agility and expertise of graduates when they join the job market.
She said they offered hands on experiences and engaged students and deepened their understanding of cyber security principles as well as establish cyber security space where all can collaborate, share knowledge and participate in the cyber security related activities.
She pointed out that as a special initiative, they were committed to enrolling the winners of Cyber-clash in a comprehensive Cyber Immersion Programme.
Cyber Immersion Programme, she said, was an intensive, accelerated training programme that incorporates various aspects of cyber security with real world exercises drawn from actual cyber intelligence experiences with the goal of producing an outstanding crop of graduates who can quickly and effectively launch careers in cyber security. The programme, so far, impacted more than 200 students in various universities with cohort from universities in Kenya and Botswana and takes up to six months.
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