Africom meeting in Ghana to focus on cyber threats
Cybersecurity interoperability in African countries will be the focus of the 14th African Endeavor conference is underway in Ghana.
Participants and experts will share notes towards promoting cybersecurity best practices on the continent.
The conference is an annual five-day event, organised by the US Africa Command (Africom), with participants from 48 countries and the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) and the G5 Sahel Joint Task Force.
The subsequent days will have stakeholders discuss cyber strategy and policy development and communications interoperability.
Christopher Lamora, the US Chargé d’Affaires, agrees in his opening remarks that, cyber-enabled threats have proliferated.
He adds that National Cyber Strategies must be tailored to each nation’s own realities and goals, by engaging private sector and civil society.
“Addressing this question will be a key part of what you discuss over the coming days. What best practices have some countries or security services adopted that might be applicable somewhere else? How can National Cyber Strategies and whole-of-government approaches increase awareness, education and training? What opportunities might exist for public-private partnerships? How are we most effectively share information across borders to ensure that no country becomes a safe haven for malicious cyber activity,” he said.
“I think it’s important to recognize that, in this new era of communications today, it’s difficult for separating traditional methods from the cyber domain. And increasingly, all of our nations, have to operate in this domain of cyber activity. It is an area that is ubiqutious to the globe. it’s also an area where traditional boundaries are increasingly less significant, because of the interoperabiltiy of the internet. So I think it’s a very appropriate topic for this conference,” Major General Todd McCaffrey, Chief of Staff of the US Africa Command said at a press conference at the same event.
By Gifty Danso