Training deal to tame rising cyber crimes

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), Huawei and Safaricom #ticker:SCOM have partnered with Swahilipot to offer university students cybersecurity training.

This comes at a time when small businesses, financial institutions, State agencies, healthcare, energy and utilities are facing mounting cyber-attacks on the adoption of e-commerce platforms.

Communications Authority of Kenya acting assistant director innovation, research & development Gilbert Mugeni said Kenya has a major cybersecurity capacity gap, with more than one-third of organisations struggling to find competent experts.

“Safeguarding our national digital space requires adequate cybersecurity capacity. We are, therefore, working with local and international stakeholders to develop our national cybersecurity capacity to power and safeguard our cyberspace in all spheres,” he said at the launch of the programme.

Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said cyber attacks are no longer the preserve of a few sectors.

“No organisation and individual are insulated from cybercriminal attacks. Technology has become an enabler across different aspects of our daily lives leading to people increasingly living digital lifestyles,” he said.

Huawei deputy chief executive for public affairs Fiona Pan said: “Building and implementing end-to-end cyber security and privacy protection assurance systems is a key strategy for governments, private sector organizations and individuals.”

Phase one of the training will be online and self-paced while the second phase will be instructor-led simulated lab work on enterprise security. The third and last phase will involve an emergency response simulation exercise.

Already, 238 students have registered for the programme, showing the heightened interest from young people in cybersecurity skill sets.