Govt weighs in on cyber security awareness ,as Defence University hosts public lecture

Harare: Ministry of ICT, Postal and Courier services has Friday held a Public Lecture on Cyber security . The lecture held at the Zimbabwe Defence University in partnership with Telone. Other key stakeholders present were Baker Tilly, members of the security forces, Zimbabwe’s media regulatory board (ZMC) and Zimbabwe Information Dissemination Hub.

The lecture was running under the theme: “Cyber Security: Our Shared Responsibility.”

Welcome remarks were given by Air Marshall Dr M. T. Moyo who is the Vice Chancellor of the Zimbabwe National Defense University. Opening up the lecture floor was Partner Digital Technology, Baker Tilly’s C. T. Zvavanjanja who enlightened attendees on the National Cyber Security Best practices .Herein is a quote from his insightful presentation:
“A national cyber security strategy development process should translate a government’s vision into coherent and implementation policies that would help it achieve its objectives.”

Minister of ICT, Postal and Courier Services Hon Dr T A Mavetera was then introduced to attendees as the Guest of Honor.In giving her keynote speech Hon Mavetera started off by sharing her appreciation of being hosted at the ZNDU while confessing her childhood desire of having always wanting to join the Army: “Growing up I always wanted to be a soldier, admiring how the uniformed forces are well organized in everything they do”
Hon Mavetera went on to highlight the importance of November as the Cyber Security Awarenesss month
n light of the Cyber security awareness month and the importance of cyber security in addressing arising and existing issues of cyber bullying, cyber crime, cyber terrorism and the spreading of fake news.

Minister Mavetera noted that cyber crime has emerged as a threat to national security:
” Cyber criminals are constantly finding innovative ways and exploring ways to find weaknesses and have access to sensitive information.” As government we have a crucial role to establish and enforce regulations to ensure that indeed there is security in our cyber space and we have made significant progress in this regard by enacting the Cyber and Data Protection Act.What is left is to fully operationalise and regularize with our state security.”

She added that “Businesses also have the responsibility to prioritize cyber security in order to safe guard data by also conducting security assessments and adopting cutting edge technology to detect any malicious acts.”

Honourable Minister Dr. Tatenda Mavetera concluded by acknowledging the Zimbabwe National Defense University for providing studies centered on cyber security and also commended other institutions in the country to offer similar study programs :”We need skilled people in the country who are able to promote cyber security research and interventions”

The highlight of the event was when Dr. W. Rukanda of Mornipac took to the podium to share his presentation on Cyber crime and business disruption. Dr Rukanda had such poise and confidence, interacting flawlessly with he attendees.Amongst a plethora of his quotable quotes the tech guru had this to say:
“Cyber crime is not an anonymous victimless crime as some believe. There should be real-world consequences to people’s actions in cyber space and international activity on this nature of criminality.”

Dr Rukanda also highlighted on how a poor cyber security system can be detrimental to the going concern of businesses , reputation and even customer confidence.
In conclusion the tech expert rued the exorbitant cost of data in the country as compared to neighbouring countries.:”Data tarrifs in Zimbabwe are more than tax”said Dr Rukanda while receiving a rapturous applause.

Other lecturing presenters were Mr B. Chigwe from Zimbabwe National Defense University who presented on Cyber security legislation in Zimbabwe. Mr I. Mlambo from Telone presented on cyber security for national critical infrastructure and Mr M. Muduva from Zimbabwe National Defense University concluded the proceedings with his presentation on the Framework for optimizing cyber security threat, intelligence modeling through emerging technologies.

At a brief break from the lecture, Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) Chairperson Ruby Magosvogwe weighed in on the day’s discussions, she said :”I feel that once the Cyber and Data Protection Act is fully operational, it would translate to zero tolerance to non factual information, fake news and disinformation as journalists in the media fraternity will be expected to operate in the best ethical conduct required of them.”

MICPTCS Chief Director Mr P. Sibanda concluded the day’s events by giving feedback and recommendations stressing out the need for the country to amplify the conversation on cyber security awareness.He opined that in the current times we live it is better to acquire more computers than rifles as the wars will be likely be fought behind the keyboard.