Cyber Security Resource Center

Growing cybersecurity risks threaten the stability and integrity of many sectors in the East Africa region, as well as financial consumer protection and financial inclusion. The policymakers and providers in these sectors need specialized support to build and manage cyber resilience. But many developing countries in East Africa lack affordable and reliable cybersecurity resources and capabilities, especially specialized skills in cybersecurity.

Multiple countries in East Africa region pool their resources and create
shared cybersecurity resource centers to benefit from economies of
scale. The centers will offer intelligence about cyber threats, cyber emergency response, awareness and capacity building training, share information about international trends and best practices, and support to existing cybersecurity services.

This solution will ensure that the citizens and businesses of the East African countries and Africa at large have access to relevant cybersecurity information, Knowledge, and skills to enable them to secure their businesses and safer internet usage.

The main problem in East Africa is the lack of affordable and reliable cybersecurity resources and capabilities, especially specialized skills in cybersecurity.

There are no fully developed cybersecurity centers in East Africa that take into consideration the needs of ordinary citizens and small and medium-sized businesses due to lack of resources. Cybersecurity infrastructure is very expensive to put up and maintain.

The problem is widespread across the region with people living in rural areas and have access to the internet not having the necessary skills to protect themselves online. Small and medium-sized businesses do not have enough resources to employ cybersecurity professionals hence the reason why they are attacked. There is no laid down protocol on how businesses and ordinary citizens can share cyber threat information for further investigations.

Serianu predicted that the African cyber skills shortage will reach 100,000 by 2020. East Africa does not have enough skilled cybersecurity professionals and yet the demand for cybersecurity services is increasing. 

Cybersecurity technical training is very expensive,  training at one of Serianu's centers going for $1000 and other centers charging even more. Students do not take the few available cybersecurity courses due to a lack of funds leading to knowledge gap.

Multiple countries in the East Africa region pooling their resources and create
shared cybersecurity resource centers to benefit from economies of
scale. Centers focus on all sector of the economy and offer:

• Intelligence about cyber threats and risk management
• Timely, accessible, and affordable emergency response
• Relevant and personalized guidance and capacity building. Training students through Cyber Security Academy @iLabAfrica, and also offering awareness sessions for the ordinary citizens
• Information about international trends and best practices
• Neutral platform for regional and local collaboration, including public
  and private sector actors
• Support to existing cybersecurity service providers and initiatives
  
  
  

Our solution is focusing on the ordinary citizen, governments, and businesses across East Africa Region.

• Ordinary Citizens: They will benefit from the cybersecurity awareness program to ensure that they have the necessary skills and knowledge to protect themselves online
• Small and Medium-sized businesses: The businesses will benefit from threat intelligence services and risk management, and cybersecurity emergency services (incident response services). We shall also work with the private sector to build capacity for their workforce.
• Government: We will work with East Africa region governments to ensure we come up with cybersecurity regulations to combat cybercrime activities and also support their efforts of reaching out to the people through the awareness programs
• Student: We shall offer training opportunities and internship opportunities to the students to ensure they have the required skills and knowledge to work in the cybersecurity industry.

All businesses and ordinary people are faced with the cybersecurity challenge. 

The ordinary person needs cybersecurity knowledge to enable him/her to enjoy better cyber hygiene without being compromised because they can take necessary precautions to prevent cyber threats. Currently, people are being cyberbullied, losing money through social engineering attacks, and many more other cyber threats.

Students will get the necessary professional skills through internship and training.

Businesses will get cybersecurity resources to enable them to protect their businesses and report cyber threats.

We have onboarded students to our pilot cybersecurity academy program to work on various projects as they take a few courses taught by our skilled cybersecurity staff.

We are at the planning stage with our cyber clinic program targeted at creating awareness to the ordinary citizens and different sectors of the economy such as the financial sector.

We have also set up a security operations center focusing on monitoring and responding to the cyber incidents.

The idea of pooling resources in one centralized location and having a large number of students, businesses, and ordinary citizens.

The solution intends to serve over 10, 000 people. Currently, the pilot serves about 100 people

One of our measurable indicators is the number of interns we have enrolled in the cyber security academy which is part of the solution. So far we have enrolled about 50 interns who are currently getting on-the-job training so as to build capacity.

Our Cyber Clinic program is in the planning stage and the first webinar to the general public would be rolled out in the due course. This a good indicator of progress, thus showing some progress and we are optimistic that we shall do more in the coming days.

We are currently receiving visitors at our SOC, some coming to benchmark while others coming to have a feeling of our services. These groups include small, medium, and large enterprises. 

Through the SOC a number of small and medium-sized enterprises have reached out to us for penetration testing services which we offer at an affordable cost having in mind that these organizations are small, some at the growth stage