Mauritius has been chosen to host the African cyber-resilience hub. The launch of this program took place on Monday, opening a four-day conference on the theme: “ Criticism for a reliable development of the digital space on the continent “. This African center is intended to train African experts to protect themselves from the risks of cyberattacks of all kinds.
From our correspondent in Port-Louis,
Since the beginning of 2022, Mauritius has recorded nearly 1,100 incidents in its cyberspace in around ten forms. These include hacking scams, “sextortion”, identity theft, fraud, and the use of malware. The risk has continued to grow with a 40% increase in the use of digital services since the pandemic.
Rajnish Hawabhai, technical director at the Ministry of Technology, Information, Communication and Innovation, has seen cyberattacks likely to harm the economy. “ You can see that there are companies that have been in jeopardy for some time. We have seen attacks on state services. It is something that is constant, like everywhere else. »
For Mauritius to rank 1st in Africa and 17th worldwide in terms of cybersecurity, we have put in place a lot of things. We have implemented our new legislation. We made what is called in English a SOC, “security operation center”.
Deepak Balgobin, Minister of Technology: “We can work together with other African countries”
Banking transactions are particularly targeted
The attacks are constant and different from country to country. On the continent, banking transactions via mobile are the most targeted by online scammers and hackers. ” For several countries, the major problem is fraud via mobile phones. Each country has its reality. For Mauritius, it is tourism that can be targeted “, explains Hannes Krause, coordinator of the Cyber Resilience project in Africa based in Mauritius.
Faced with the risk of cyberattack, users must ask themselves a number of questions when accessing online services. ” Do they protect their phone well ? Do they protect their passwords well? Are the banking services they use with their mobile phone reliable? Is there a two-level identification to make sure the right person is accessing their documents? asks Merilli Soosalu, who leads the European Union’s regional Cyber Resilience projects.
For this Estonian, whose country was the victim of massive cyberattacks in 2007, all African states must prepare against this risk. Cyber-resilience implies, she specifies, a constant updating of systems, infrastructures, laws and digital expertise in the respective countries.
► To read also: Cybersecurity: in Lomé, experts believe that Africa must better protect itself