[AfrICANN-discuss] Press Release: An African Inter-Governmental Coordination and Cooperation for a Safer Internet

[Lillian Sharpley]

  For Immediate Release
5 February 2010

*                            An African Inter-Governmental Coordination 
and Cooperation for a Safer Internet*

Cybercrime and security is a growing concern, a priority, and hot topic 
today for law enforcement as well as the Internet technical community. 
Realising the importance of collectively addressing this issue, AfriNIC 
has established the AfriNIC Government Working Group (AfGWG) initiative 
with the first round table for Law Enforcement Agencies on the theme of 
/"African Inter-Governmental Coordination and Cooperation for a Safer 
Internet"/ which took place 25 -- 26 January 2010, at the Four Points 
Sheraton Hotel, Cyber City, Mauritius. There were thirty-five (35) 
delegates from eleven (11) countries representing government officials 
who are responsible for law enforcement and cyber security in Africa, 
the Council of Europe, the US Department of Justice/Federal Bureau of 
Investigations, ICANN/IANA, and other RIR organisations. QCC Information 
Security Ltd (Mauritius) was a sponsor of the social event.

This event is the first step in AfriNIC's strategy to improve its 
cooperation and support to governments in their quest to better 
understand the Internet governance ecosystem and positively contribute 
to policy discussions and matters that are of their interest. "If we 
want the Internet to be a safer place for business and a tool that can 
foster Socio-Economical Development in Africa, we need to better 
understand the Economics of the Internet and create a broad and 
participative cooperation where each party and stakeholder play their 
role for efficient policies and collaborative frameworks to fight 
cybercrime," said Mr. Adiel Akplogan the CEO of AfriNIC.

During this two-day event, the participants discussed current challenges 
with Internet-related crimes; steps being taken by law enforcement 
agencies; ways in which these challenges manifest in their respective 
countries and potential efforts to combat such challenges; ideas to 
promote security by facilitating global cooperation and coordination; 
insight into the Internet Ecosystem and its governance; how cooperating 
with existing organisations such as AfriNIC can impact the work of Law 
Enforcement Agencies; and, National CERT (Computer Emergency Readiness 
Team) Programs implemented in the African region.

Feedback from most of the participants was very positive, such as from 
Mrs. Farida Waziri, Chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes 
Commission, Nigeria, who stated, "It has been very informative. Glad to 
be in Mauritius, though it was a technical meeting, I have been able to 
pick and learn many things. I am concerned about the level of crime in 
Nigeria and this kind of meeting will help me takeaway information for 
my country and try building training in the very near future. This event 
really met our expectations and that is why I stayed one more day."

The exchange of information and ideas proved to be very useful to the 
participants as expressed by Mrs. Pierrette Djossou Amoussou, 
Telecommunications Engineer, Benin's Posts & Telecommunications 
Transitory Regulatory Authority, who stated, "This was a well organized 
event, the content was very interesting and we received desired 
information. We have gathered interesting information on cyber crimes 
and different issues from other countries. We are much concerned about 
cyber crimes and we will make sure that the necessary actions are taken 
at our level in Benin."

The outcome of the meeting was to continue to strengthen the AfGWG and 
hold subsequent meetings in other African regions; to include legal 
entities and create a legal framework; involve universities and the 
younger generation in cyber crime and law enforcement efforts; and to 
establish a single repository for cybercrime and security in the African 
region. The next AfGWG Cyber Crime/Law Enforcement event will take place 
in November 2010 at the 13^th AfriNIC Public Policy meeting. AfriNIC has 
created an open mailing list for the exchange of cyber security 
information, subscribe by sending a request with your name, title, 
organisation, and, email to contact at afrinic.net 
<mailto:contact at afrinic.net> and include afgwg-discuss in the subject 
line. Presentations from this event are available 
athttp://meeting.afrinic.net/afgwg/index.php/workshop-agenda.

/The African Network Information Center (AfriNIC) is the Regional 
Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa, responsible for the distribution and 
management of Internet number resources throughout the African region. 
www.afrinic.net/
//
//
//Contact:
Lillian Sharpley
press at afrinic.net <mailto:press at afrinic.net>
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