Renewed impetus for Internet security preparedness comes as the ship laying SEACOM project fiber optic cable lines has docked at the port of Mombasa and national backbones have been completed in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
SEACOM is expected to be operational in June, followed by The East Africa Sub Marine System (TEAMS) in September and the East Africa Submarine System (EASSY) is expected in June of next year. The cables will interconnect 16 countries on the east coast and the whole continent via SAT 3 cable in West Africa.
Many governments in Africa are relying on Web sites and e-mails to offer services and send information to the public -- for instance, tax returns can be filed online in some countries, said Michuki Mwangi, president of the Africa Top Level Domain organization.
The Internet infrastructure faces threats from malicious hackers, environmental and natural disasters, attacks from disgruntled employees, social-engineering spoofing and equipment failure.
The training has attracted more than 50 participants. The meeting is partly sponsored by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
"As the coordinator of global internet infrastructure, ICANN decided to support the training because any point of failure strains the entire network," said Ann-Rachel Inne, Africa liaison at ICANN.
The training, which was first offered to ccTLD managers in the Asia-Pacific region, is covering topics such as risk assessment, contingency planning, dealing with denial of service attacks and predicting and preparing for disaster.
Business continuity and recovery from cyberattack or disaster are important for any economy, said Chris Evans, a senior consultant at U.S. security firm Delta Risk, which is conducting the training.
"The ccTLD registry manager is responsible for the organization in case of an attack," said Evans. "It is important to establish relations with stakeholders and know how to react in case of an attack."
Developing countries with scanty resources face a tough task of maintaining business continuity in case of an attack compared to developed countries, noted Mwangi.
"Africa is specifically vulnerable because the registries are small and operations not efficient. It will be important for countries to share knowledge on how to run operations efficiently and respond to attacks," said Inne.