23 Mar 2015

Botswana’s first cyber security and internet summit is to focus on building awareness on national and corporate cyber threat.

Transport Hub coordinator, Mr Neil Fitt, said the summit would also address protection and safety on the internet, preparedness and educational receptiveness in combating cybercrime, cyber threats and individual security on the internet.

Mr Fitt,  was speaking on behalf of Minister of Transport and Communication, Mr Tshenolo Mabeo, at the cyber security and internet summit recently. He said the society lived in an era of unpredictable information age with wide use of the internet and therefore there was need for the society to guard against improper use of this technology.

He noted that the summit was intended to look at how the country understood and saw the digital age and its security and solving policy issues and cyber threat.  “This year, we ask, is Botswana ready for cyber-attacks and how ready are we,” he said.

He said technology revolution had taken the world by storm and there was no corner of the globe not affected, adding that technology had brought about tremendous changes in every aspect of our daily lives.

“Technology has changed how we live, how we work and how we see things,” he said.  Managing director of Huawei Mr Gao Wenli said cyber security had become and continues to be a global issue.

Mr Wenli said stakeholders must share knowledge and understanding of what works and what did not work to reduce the risk of people using technology for the purposes never intended for.

He said that during the past 20 years, the world had witnessed the blossoming of the commercial internet which planted the seed of the global digital network that has made such things like email and telemedicine, social networks to online banking to be affordable. BOPA