[AfriNIC-announce] Press Release: An African Inter-Governmental
Coordination and Cooperation for a Safer Internet
Lillian Sharpley
lillian at afrinic.net
Fri Feb 5 16:10:13 SAST 2010
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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