Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Cybersecurity Capacity Center for Southern Africa (C3SA) Senior Researcher Laban Bagui has stressed a need for improvement of cyber security in Lesotho.
This he said during the three-day Cybersecurity Capacity Maturity Model for Nations (CMM) workshop where local stakeholders convened for review of cyber security in the country last week. As part of their ongoing regional tour, the C3SA conducted cyber security assessment on different ministries and relevant stakeholders in Lesotho.
Speaking in an interview with Informative Newspaper, Bagui said they were invited to assess cyber security maturity level and see what they can do help Lesotho in building a working cyber security model.
“We assess if the systems that are in place aligned with the international prospectors standards
on cyber security so as to be ready to say the country is at the particular level compared to the rest of the world. From there the policy makers will make
decisions to allocate the resources and ensure that the country improves,” he said. According to Bagui, cyber security is a need for every country, but it is mostly needed in Lesotho where there are no traces
of security measures on the internet. Another C3SASenior Researcher Teofelus Tuyeni highlighted that their core activities include deploying the CMM through developing
initiatives to improve cyber security capacity and conducting cyber security research in Africa. He furthered stated that along with CMM deployments, they
strive to increase cybersecurity awareness in the region. “We work with cyber security experts, researchers and partners who share an overarching goal of helping
nations with cyber resilience. C3SA provides a single-entry point for cybersecurity capacity building and research activities in Africa,” Tuyeni noted.
Speaking on the closing ceremony, the Minister of Communications, Science and Technology Hon. Tsoinyane Rapapa indicated the recommendations will be considered by the management
of Cybersecurity systems in the country. He noted that earlier last week the Cybersecurity Bill was presented and was passed with the overwhelming majority.
“The assessment takes place when the government has priorities to develop the Legal and Regulatory Framework intended to combat cybercrime, Regulations of
Cybercrime security majors and also involvement in the Electronic transactions and communications in line with international best practices in particular,” he
said. According to Rapapa the African Union Convention on cyber security and protocols of personal data Budapest Convention enjoin the country to establish save majors in Lesotho.
He stipulated that each stakeholder was able to identify the gaps that exist in each sector and the country as a whole. He noted that Cybersecurity Bill intends
to establish a council and National Cyber security incident Report Teams, saying the assessment also paves the way for informed focus on the specific needs for the country.
He said the responses and information shared during the workshop were evident that a lot of work need to be done by government and private sectors. C3SA is facilitated
by the University of Cape Town and acts as a coordination and collaboration hub between cybersecurity capacity-building actors in order to reduce duplication of efforts on cyber capacity building in the region. It is a partner of the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) – a forum that aims to strengthen cyber capacity and expertise globally.
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