ISOC, AUC collabo on Internet security for Africa

ITRealms:

The Internet Society (ISOC) is collaborating with the African Union Commission (AUC) to unveil a new set of Internet Infrastructure Security Guidelines (IISG) for Africa, at the ongoing African Internet Summit (AIS) in Nairobi-Kenya, for building a more secure Internet in Africa, reports ITRealms.

The guidelines, the first of its kind, ITRealms gathered would help Africa create a more secure Internet infrastructure and are set to change the way African Union States approach cyber security preparedness.

ITRealms also gathered that the guidelines were developed via a multi-stakeholder group of African and global internet infrastructure security experts, and are the first step towards building a more secure Internet in Africa. They will help AU member states strengthen the security of their local Internet infrastructure through actions at a regional, national, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) cum operator and organizational level.

ITRealms further reports that Africa’s cyber security environment faces a unique combination of challenges, including a lack of awareness of the risks involved in using technology.

In addition, ITRealms gathered that Kenya was ranked the 69th most vulnerable country out of 127 in the 2015 Deloitte Global Threat Index. Some of the main reasons were the low awareness, underinvestment, talent shortage and overload of data, even as Deloitte further estimates that Kenya lost $171 million to cybercrime in 2016.

For the Director, Africa Regional Bureau at the Internet Society, Dr. Dawit Bekele, Africa has achieved major strides in developing its Internet Infrastructure in the past decade, but, the Internet would not provide the aspired benefits unless Africans can trust it.

“We have seen from recent experiences that Africa is not immune from cyber-attacks and other security threats. These guidelines, developed in collaboration with the African Union Commission, will help African countries put in place the necessary measures to increase the security of their Internet infrastructure,” he said.

Reacting, Head, Information Society Division, African Union, Mr. Moctar Yeday, said that this is another timely milestone achievement given the new security challenges in cyberspace.

“The Commission of the African Union will continue its partnership with the Internet Society on a second set of guidelines addressing personal data protection in Africa,” Yeday said.

Nonye Dom/GEE

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Cyber threats: Nigeria ranks 59th - Symantec

Roundtable: Symantec Channel Manager, Nigeria & Ghana, Adeyemi Adeleke

and Symantec Territory Manager, IWECA (Indian Islands, West, East and 

Central Africa),  Sheldon Hand during the Company's Media Roundtable at 

Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Ikeja, Lagos Thursday.

Leading cyber security solution company, Symantec has ranked Nigeria 59^th on its latest ranking from 66 position recorded at the same period last year.

Disclosing this in an exclusive interview with ITRealms Online during his working visit to Nigeria last week, the Territory Manager, Symantec Pty Limited in-charge of Indian Ocean Islands, West, East and Central Africa (IWECA), Mr. Sheldon Hand, said in Lagos that with this ranking, Nigeria’s position has actually increased in the cyber threat sphere.

He explained that the way the ranking work is that if a country is ranked first, it means it’s the most country with security threats.

He also adduced some reasons for the Nigeria’s position, listing the booming economy, advent of more bandwidth routes and explosion in mobile devices.

For him, Internet security threats have actually tripled due to avalanche of technologies, especially mobile devices.

According to him, Symantec recently, released a report which is an analysis of all the threats on the internet, based on its deployment systems to scan over 8 billion electronic mails (emails) per day.

“We have more than 240,000 censors in 200 countries. These censors are networks in strategic places, and what this allows us to do is gather a tremendous amount of information and intelligence about the threats that are happening in the world on the internet,” he said.

Mr. Hand also affirmed that Symantec has specific statistics for Nigeria, which shows that in 2011 Nigeria was ranked the 66^th, which means that is the 66^th highest country with internet threats, but this has increased.

He explained that this does not meant that security threat ranking of Nigeria has gone down.

“No, If you ranks number 1, it means you have the most security internet threat, so Nigeria has gone from 66 to 59 which means security threats have increased,” Mr. Hand said.

As said by him, the reason for the aforementioned ranking based on Symantec perception are in three-fold, namely, the first one “is Nigeria’s economy is booming, it is estimated that about 2015 Nigeria’s economy will be bigger than South Africa’s economy, this is estimated by Morgan Stanley Research.”

He pointed out that over a couple of years, there have been an increase in the broadband capacity in Nigeria.

“So, the internet with broadband is a platform for malicious activities for security threats in one of two ways,” he said.

Lastly, he said, there is an increased security threat in Nigeria because of the adoption of mobile devices which has increased significantly as there is a lot of people using android, iphone, blackberry, tablets and many others.

 Remmy Nweke

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Symantec unveils enterprise mobility strategy

Symantec Corporation has unveiled its enterprise mobility strategy to significantly advance Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7 platforms, and help customers secure mobile data while facilitating business productivity across corporate devices. 

The Senior Vice President, Endpoint and Mobility Group at Symantec, CJ Desai, said that the company empowers enterprises to foster mobile productivity by enabling new business models that rely on diverse mobile devices and innovative mobile applications.

This platform, the VP noted in a press statement made available to ITRealms Online, allows these services to be delivered via on-prem and Software as a Service (SaaS) models, as part of existing security and management solutions, to drive operational efficiencies and lower total-cost-of-ownership.

Desai stated that the recent State of Mobility Survey highlighted that 59 per cent of enterprises are making line-of-business applications accessible from mobile devices, representing a dramatic shift in the nature of mobility from an email extension to a core business enabler. 

He disclosed that Symantec is at the forefront of enabling enterprise productivity. “With these new enhancements to our mobile portfolio, we will offer the most comprehensive solution set for securing mobile devices, apps and data. With Symantec, enterprises no longer have to choose between productivity and security. We are changing the game by allowing them to confidently achieve both,” Desai said.

The Endpoint and Mobility specialist further revealed that, with multiple application stores and unchecked applications, Android is a frequent target for malware, raising the possibility of data theft and browser-based phishing attacks. 

Symantec, Desai said, plans to bring its anti-malware technology and global intelligence network capabilities to the Android platform with Mobile Security for Android.  

The VP explained that to enable strong user and device authentication to enterprise networks and applications, Mobile management is integrated with the new managed Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Service v8.3, which includes certificate management enhancements for iOS devices.  

Also speaking, the Principal Consultant, Carbon Security, Robert Kalinofski pointed out that, securing tablets is a hot issue.

“It’s where the workforce is going, and it is critical to control the information that is leaving from these devices. Symantec Data Loss Prevention for Tablets does just that, it ensures the confidential data on tablets is protected and helps to balance the need for security with productivity of users,” he said.

ITRealms Online recalls that Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world.  Even as its software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored.

Remmy Nweke

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D