By Nelvin Biwott
The Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) has challenged devolved units to consider themselves active players in the digital space.
CA Director General Ezra Chiloba argues that counties should not confine themselves to merely automating their services but also think about safeguarding data.
Speaking in Eldoret, Chiloba said counties should consider hiring Cyber Security professionals who will always advise them on what needs to be done to ensure their systems remain secure not just for a short time but also for future reference.
The CA boss was in Eldoret for the closing ceremony of the Boot camp and Hackton series training that targeted to train young people on matters of cyber security.
This is even as the government has been working on digitizing its services to citizens across the country.
Under the initiative, the Communication Authority of Kenya received 6,000 applications from students who wanted to participate in the exercise which was launched a couple of weeks ago.
It is aimed at creating opportunities for young people with talents in cyber security by bringing them together to compete and showcasing some of their skills in cyber security products and services.
Cyber Attacks in Kenya
The initiative comes at a time it has emerged that Kenya is among African countries that have been a target of hackers.
Data indicate that by June 2023, Kenya had recorded at least 440 million cyber-attacks.
“It is our responsibility to ensure that our space remains secure and mitigate the risks by continuously monitoring cyberspace and by having proper policy framework that is more progressive and adequate resources to be invested in digital space,” noted Chiloba.
It is only a few weeks ago that the country witnessed an attack targeting eCitizen, a portal used by the public to access over 5,000 government services.
Even though the attack was not successful, it impacted among others passport applications and renewal, e-visas for non-citizens visiting Kenya, as well as driving licences, ID cards and health records from being issued.
