A group under the banner, West Africa ICT Action Network (WAICTANET), on April 14, 2021 launched a model project, “Civil Society Capacity Building on Liberia’s National Cyber-Security Strategy”, with the theme, “Enhancing Civil Society Knowledge for Effective Participation in Cyber-Security Matters”.
With support from the Global Digital Partners (GDP) and other local partners in Liberia, the platform brought together multi-stakeholders, the student community, media practitioners and a host of civil society actors at the roundtable to ensure a radical approach in combating the vulnerability of Liberia’s cyberspace and speak consciousness to the government through the 54th legislators for the enactment of a robust cyber security law.
The platform observed that the world has landed into a digital age and Liberia as a nation is extremely overwhelmed by a series of cybercrimes, cyber-attacks and other forms of technological issues due to the country’s low percentage of computer literacy, which leads to the constant misuse of internet data and other unlawful violations normally cause by local GSM companies.
From a holistic standpoint, the purpose of the workshop seems to be to increase awareness and the capacity of civil society groups in Liberia in order that they may engage in the process of development and implementation of Liberia’s national cyber security strategy and, thereby, end the culture of impunity and provide more job opportunities throughout the country.
WAICTANet is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in internet governance, ICT action and regulation as well as a network of civil society, academia and ICT think-tank.
As a non-for-profit ICT NGO, its objective is to act as facilitator in policy reforms in the ICT sector, leading to sub-regional, national ICT advancement and development in West Africa, with a focus on information communication technology (ICT), Civil society capacity building including digital rights and digital inclusion.
Addressing scores of participants at Corina Hotel, Cooper W. Kruah, Minister of Post & Telecommunication, extolled the Government of Liberia (GOL) for the continued effort in developing roadmaps, where finding safety will become obvious at all and every entry point, be it online or physical, adding that ECOWAS, AU, EU, US and other partners are key contributors to that effect.
The Minister maintained that under his administration, “All efforts have been made possible on the conclusion of its Cybercrime Act of 2021, and is now set for onward presentation to the Executive Mansion, which will later on submit it to the Legislature for enactment into law.”
The MOPT boss further disclosed that the endorsement of the National Telecommunication and ICT Policy in September 2019 by the Government of Liberia (GOL) was not an end in itself, but rather to strengthen the citizens’ resolve to use ICT in transforming the country, with a vision which generally intends to make commerce transparent and efficient, make health services more accessible, ensure that education meets everyone’s need, implement e-Government standards and bring about improved governance.
From a broad perspective, cyber security could be defined as the body of rules put in place for the protection of the cyberspace. It is concerned with protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) of both information and information systems.
On top of that, the capacity building workshop also strives to ensure the attainment and maintenance of the security properties of organization and users’ assets against relevant security risks in the cyber environment, especially on the social media.
Giving an insight of the training exercise, B. Geeplay William, the CEO of Technopreneur Liberia, highlighted on several issues, ranging from the goals of cyber security, protection of CSO actors, cyber security risks facing CSO actors, overview of cybercrime, cyber-theft, among others.
In the same vein, William said, “The importance of the workshop is to create new breed of professionals as digital forensic and cyber security practitioners who will trace after these criminals (hackers) and their illicit activities worldwide.”
Meanwhile, Williams later mentioned that the goals of cyber security include to help people reduce the vulnerability of their information communication technology systems and network, to develop and nurture a practical culture of cyber security for individuals and institutions, and to help understand the current trends in IT/Cybercrimes and develop effective situations.
But holding unto the fact that violation of cyber security law in some advanced countries is tantamount to severe punishment, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates average annual loss from cybercrime is somewhere around US$97 billion worldwide. “Cybercrime includes single actor or groups laundering systems for financial gain or to cause disruption,” says Peterking Quaye, the Executive Director of WAICTANET.
At the same time, he interchangeably defined cyber-attack, stating that it is often invoked by political motivation to gather information, while cyber-terrorism could be intended to undermine electronic system in order to cause panic or fear.