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<h1>AfriNIC embraces Internet challenges in Africa
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Rebecca Wanjiku
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05.02.2010 kl 18:26 | IDG News Service</div>
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<p id="artLead" class="articleMagazineLeadText">For the past five
years, Africa Network Information Center resisted taking on assignments
outside its scope. As one of the few functioning Internet-related
organizations on the continent, AfriNIC now realizes that nothing much
is getting done and has decided to widen its scope, but still stay
grounded in its original <br></p>
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<p>For the past five years, Africa Network Information Center resisted
taking on assignments outside its scope. As one of the few functioning
Internet-related organizations on the continent, AfriNIC now realizes
that nothing much is getting done and has decided to widen its scope,
but still stay grounded in its original mission.</p>
<p>AfriNIC has started working with law enforcement agencies to address
their concerns and foster dialogue with the technical community, and it
had a stand at the Africa Union heads of state summit. Adiel Akplogan,
AfriNIC CEO, explains how the organization has evolved, why it is
taking on new roles and how it will manage.</p>
<p>Computerworld: What are the core functions of AfriNIC as the regional Internet registry?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Akplogan: Just like other regional registries, AfriNIC manages
Internet numbers, offers training on Internet-related issues such as
Internet version 6, security, and provides a forum for the technical
community to engage.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Computerworld: How is AfriNIC different from other RIRs such as LACNIC (Latin America) and RIPENCC (Europe)?</p>
<p>Akplogan: Our challenges are closer to South America because the
Internet is not as developed as Western countries but is gaining
momentum. Other RIRs are in places where the Internet is set up and
governments have resources dedicated to critical Internet
infrastructure.</p>
<p>After five years of consolidating and keeping our base principle,
AfriNIC has the privilege to be in the midst of the Internet
engineering developments and we can help shape policies and foster
dialogue on what works and what doesn't.</p>
<p>Computerworld: Last month, AfriNIC held a closed session for law
enforcement and government officials in the region. What were the major
issues discussed?</p>
<p>Akplogan: For a long time the technical community has operated in a
closed environment with their jargon and not talking the language
governments understand. Developed countries already have this
collaboration with different stakeholders. </p>
<p>We have started working with governments, to advise them on key
issues which are in one way or another linked with what AfriNIC does;
we have a government working group which will create an environment for
governments, regulators and law enforcement agencies to understand the
Internet ecosystem and raise their concerns.</p>
<p>The session was closed because government agencies have issues that
they prefer not to raise in public. The issues are critical and AfriNIC
will create collaboration with the technical community for both sides
to address issues such as security, which is becoming critical as the
continent becomes more connected.</p>
<p>Computerworld: Are governments going to start filtering what we access?</p>
<p>Akplogan: We are not going to see countries filtering. The question
came up, where some people thought that instead of having all the
issues with cybercrime, why not have a single gateway where countries
can filter. We explained that filtering is adding another layer and
also discussed how the Internet ecosystem works. We want them to be at
ease. </p>
<p>We discussed how to use existing WHOIS database, AfriNIC and ICANN
to investigate cybercrime and how the countries can participate in
policy debates on what should be in the WHOIS database, among other
global issues.</p>
<p>Computerworld: AfriNIC has invested in the training of techies -- how are you working with universities?</p>
<p>Akplogan: We are moving to another level of turning professional. We
have a dedicated resource center for training; we are planning to set
up an IP technical center of excellence in Mauritius, to provide
training on Internet economics for ccTLDS in the region.</p>
<p>Most ccTLDs are not performing because they don't understand the
business aspects. We would like to teach ISPs [Internet service
providers] how to negotiate peering agreements -- a lot of ISPs don't
negotiate well because they don't know.</p>
<p>Our virtual lab is accessible to universities in the region, we have
bilateral partnerships with universities and we are expanding to
include more. The collaboration with universities will allow them to
integrate IPv6, DNSSEC, and RIR management to their university
programs. That will expand the bilingual (French and English) training
that we have been offering for the last five years.</p>
<p>Computerworld: Part of the training has been on DNS security. How has the Conficker worm affected the region?</p>
<p>Akplogan: It has affected the region but the problem is that some of
the ccTLDs do not know. Most ccTLDs are managed informally, which opens
the door for many of them to be affected by Conficker. The ccTLDs have
the information on Conficker but they don't have proper processes. If
the right process is not in place, even if people have been trained and
know what to do, it does not help.</p>
<p>Computerworld: How does AfriNIC work with Africa TLD organization to address some of the issues?</p>
<p>Akplogan: AfriNIC hosts the AfTLD secretariat, manages their
accounts and sponsors their events. This is because AfTLD has an
important role to play in the region. We are going to work more with
AfTLD and offer ccTLD courses on Internet economics: how to do
business, promotion and marketing aspects, branding and technical
stability. </p>
<p>For instance, you see many people in these meetings with Yahoo,
Gmail e-mail addresses -- it's a pity, but when you discuss it with
them, you realize they don't trust their local infrastructure. E-mail
is important to them, but they don't do anything to improve Internet
infrastructure; instead, they turn to Yahoo and Gmail.</p>
<p>Some of them are government officials; they exchange some
confidential information through these addresses. But if they support
their local infrastructure and use it, they will solve the trust
problems.</p>
<p>Computerworld: AfriNIC has a project to interconnect the IXPs in the region, what is the progress?</p>
<p>Akplogan: The regional interconnection of IXPs has not started
formally because existing national IXPs are not operational. We want to
strengthen local exchanges before going to the regional; we need to
move step by step.</p>
<p>We understand the economics of IXPs and we need to make them become
strategic infrastructure for our countries, to offer more services
apart of peering, have measurement tools that can drive the policies.
For instance, know how the traffic is moving and increasing for a
certain ISP and advise them on steps or policies to adopt; show their
traffic trends at different times, show them how their business can do
better.</p>
<p>AfriNIC and ISOC have just signed an agreement with the regulator in
Senegal to help them set up an IXP and root server copy because in the
whole [of] west Africa there's no root server copy.</p>
<p>Computerworld: Do you think all these activities are going to weigh down AfrINIC?</p>
<p>Akplogan: It's not going to weigh us down because we have already consolidated our activities and we have more staff. </p>
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