Africa vs. Cyber Crime

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

West-African states are cracking down on cyber-crime.

The ECOWAS organization, the Economic Community of West African States, has announced the establishment of Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) in member states. The measure, according to the announcment, is aimed at fighting cyber crime in the region.

Isaisa da-Rosa, ECOWAS Commissoner in charge of ICT, said: “We are working strongly to have in our region a good cyber security environment. We have adopted some supplementary acts on electronic transaction, the supplementary act on personal data protection and the directive on fighting cyber crime.”

However, da-Rosa added that “there are things that we need to do. We have now started to work on the establishment of Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) in each of the 15-member states.”

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

The Commissioner also said that the region needed to work on defining a better and more effective and legal framework to combat cyber crime, in addition to intra-regional and international, global cooperation.

A report by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published in 2010 revealed that more than 1.5 million people become victims of identity theft every year. It further revealed an economic loss estimated at $1 billion.

Source: Daily Times