Lahja Nashuuta
The government is in the process of establishing a national cybersecurity incident response team as a coordinating point for matters related to cybersecurity, information minister Emma Theofelus has revealed.
In an interview with New Era, she pointed out that the computer security incident response team will fall under the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN), and will be responsible for detecting most, if not all, cyber threats, and alerting the owners of the networks that are in danger.
To enable the operations of the unit, the minister said the government has secured N$20 million over three years for CRAN to execute this project.
The government, in partnership with the Internet Watch Foundation, Unicef and Lifeline/Child Line, launched the national reporting portal for child sexual abuse material.
“The portal allows anyone to anonymously report digitally-abusive materials affecting children with the view of combating cybercrimes towards them. Once reviewed and found offensive, the material is taken down from online platforms,” said the minister.
Theofelus said the government has developed a five-year national cybersecurity strategy and awareness-raising plan, which is currently under implementation.
“The strategy outlines the objectives of the initiative, the goals in terms of desired infrastructure, legislation that must be in place, as well as the capabilities in terms of the necessary skills the country should have if we are to have a resilient and safe internet space,” she said.
In addition, the ministry will continue to implement the cybersecurity strategy in partnership with Salt Essential, as per their recently-signed agreement.
“As a result, physical and virtual cybersecurity awareness sessions are conducted to protect Namibians against cyber-attacks. We thus encourage members of the public to engage the ministry for tailor-made awareness-raising sessions to understand the dangers of cybercrimes, and the importance of cybersecurity,” she said.
She stated that with the finalisation of the national digital strategy and access to information regulation, the Data Protection Bill and the Cybercrime Bill, there are legal guidelines to halt cybercrimes in the country.
“The national digital strategy has been developed, and is due for submission to Cabinet for approval. Concurrently, stakeholders’ consultations were held to discuss the draft Data Protection Bill, which is now due for tabling to the Cabinet committee on legislation for discussions and the next course of action,” she said.
She confirmed that she has already submitted the Access to Information regulations to the National Assembly, and expects the National Assembly to discuss and consider the regulations for approval when parliament resumes.
On a different note, the minister expressed satisfaction with the current rollout of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure to bridge the digital gap in unserved and underserved areas.
She said while ICT infrastructure has been rolled out by the operators at their cost, the government has appropriated N$115 million during the 2024/25-2026/27 medium-term expenditure framework period to roll out ICT infrastructure to bridge the digital gap in such areas.
She said N$35 million is set aside for 14 sites in the first year, and N$40 million for 14 sites in each subsequent year.
-lnashuuta@gmail.com