09 Aug 2018

 Africa Cyber Security (ACS) is set to host the annual African Cyber Crime Conference, bringing together under one roof industry players, government and academics to deliberate on how to improve the state of cyber security on both domestic and international level.

The conference is scheduled for September 12-13 at Travel Lodge in Gaborone under the theme: Prepare/ Protect/ Prevent/ Prosecute.

“This year we will take people on a deep dive to a greater understanding of the shady world of cyber and give you the tools to protect yourself from criminals and should it be necessary to fight back,” said ACS director Ms Laurie Pieters-James at a press briefing.

She said cybercrime affected all in one way or another while the use of technology to commit malicious acts was rampant and on the increase as hackers and opportunists alike gear up to make an illicit buck.

Ms Pieters-James, who is a forensic criminologist by profession, further said they managed to secure diverse, internationally acclaimed speakers including Dr Kacper Gradon, a Fullbright Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder Institute of Behavioral Science.

“He is an experienced profiler specialising in cyber war and the weaponising of technology for cyberterror attacks,” she said, adding that they have also sourced top-notch speakers representing law enforcement, hackers, academics, researchers, respected legal minds and cyber professionals operating at the cutting edge of their respective fields.

Speakers would address cyber pressing issues, including issues surrounding privacy, cyber awareness, cyber bullying, cyber stalking, dangers of social media incident response, cyberwar and terror.

These also include the dark web, crypto-currencies, risk assessment, penetration testing, the importance of training, technical solutions and the effective investigation and successful prosecution of cybercrime.

She said workshops with speakers would be conducted throughout the conference in breakaway sessions.

“Delegates will have the opportunity to select workshops they wish to attend on arrival at the conference and here topics can be explored in detail with hands-on, real-life scenarios being tackled, giving delegates that up close and personal experience,” she continued.

She also indicated that at ACS, they believe that education was the cornerstone of combatting cyber threats.

“As part of the conference initiative aimed at promoting awareness and prevention, ACS and its training partner GoldPhish will be offering free online cyber awareness training to companies with under 100 employees who currently earn under P10million per annum,” she said.

She further said for business survival, it was integral that people become acquainted with the threats posed by cyber criminals.

“It is only once we truly understand the nature of these crimes that we can adequately defend our interests from cyber criminals. Awareness and access to information are key,” she concluded.

For his part, managing director at ACS Mr Chris Johnson said it was important for companies in Botswana that deal with mostly confidential data to attend the conference.

“You also find that at companies, the most exposed people are executives and they should have measures in place to guard against unsavoury people having access to company data and their clients’ data as well, hence we come in,” he said.

He said the cyber world was very huge and has the potential to contribute significantly to the job situation in Botswana.

“But what we need to address most is the lack of research information specifically for Botswana and this would go a long way in helping us quantify the industry,” he said, adding that the world over, countries were investing heavily in this industry and spending patterns increase annually.He noted that they were in discussions with relevant authorities to try and bring Mr Kevin Mitnick to the conference so as to share with participants his experiences and raise awareness on various issues to be discussed.

Kevin Mitnick is an American computer security consultant, author, and hacker, best known for his high-profile 1995 arrest and later five years in prison for various computer and communications-related crimest. ENDS