Advancing Regional Cyber Security and Stability in Africa – Expert Roundtable

Summary

The Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy organized a three-day workshop with senior officials from Africa’s regional institutions and representatives from national computer emergency response teams.

Details

Aim

1. Convene the AU, RECs, and key African states to share insights, good practices, and lessons learned from their efforts to build cyber capacity and improve cooperation in cyberspace amongst themselves.
2. Informed by examples of successful regionally-led initiatives to build cyber capacity, generate recommendations for advancing Africa’s regional cybersecurity institutions and architecture in alignment with the UN framework.
3. Catalyze the first steps towards implementing the recommendations identified and
   discussed by program attendees.

Context

African states have varying levels of digitization, cyber capabilities, and expertise. The AU and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) play a crucial role in navigating these differences to pursue the common interests of member states in advancing the globally recognized norms of state behavior in cyberspace and in responding to sophisticated cyber threats from state-backed actors and organized cybercriminal networks. Regional institutions have, for example, facilitated the adoption of the Malabo Convention to enable its members to assist one another in detecting and responding to cross-border cybersecurity threats; drafted model laws and legislation to enable African countries to defend cyberspace in line with international legal standards; and provided technical assistance to build out the continent’s emergency computer
response infrastructure.

30 attendees, including subject matter experts, representatives from leading national Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), as well as U.S. government, E.U., and U.K. officials had bee invited. Representatives from multilateral institutions, including the African Union, ECOWAS, IGAD, SADC, ECCAS, as well as the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams and the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise were also invited. CERT representatives came from the following countries (1 per country): Cote D’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zambia. U.S. government attendees came from the U.S. Department of State, the George C. Marshall European Center (GCMC) for Security Studies, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Defense. Africa Center alumni with relevant expertise had also been included.