Malawi steps up fight against cyber crime
Government has admitted that cyber crimes are on the increase in the country necessitating the need to have a Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert) to deal with it.
Malawi has of late seen the increase of cyber crimes which include hacking, spamming, cyber harassment as well as stalking.
Responding to a questionnaire Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture Kondwani Nankhumwa said the problem of cybercrime is growing because there is no law governing the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.
He said Cert shall serve as a base for national coordination to respond to ICT security threats in Malawi both in a proactive and reactive manner.
”Cyber crime is there and big and it comes in different forms including hacking, spamming, cyber harassment and stalking. A good example that this problem is big is that in 2014 almost all government websites were hacked and defaced.
“Apart from the Communications Act of 1998 Malawi did not have any law covering the entire ICT sector hence the increase in the cyber cases,” said Nankhumwa.
Cybercrime is a fast-growing area of crime, with more criminals exploiting the speed, convenience and anonymity of the Internet to commit offences that know no borders, either physical or virtual.
In another development, Nankhumwa said government plans to establish the Malawi Information Technology Authority (Mita) have been put on hold. He said its roles, which include coordinating human and institutional development for the promotion of ICT utilisation and coordination of all national ICT programmes to ensure their alignment with national priorities, have been transferred to the Department of e-Government which is under his ministry.
”In the absence of the authority, ICT development was being championed by the mainstream civil service and was at a risk of running business as usual. Apart from that it has been hard to maintain ICT professionals within the civil service due to poor salaries. However, the good news is that the government is now undergoing reform and that ICT is part of the first sectors considered for reform. This is the main reason why the establishment of Mita was pended.’
A computer expert and systems developer Ted Kaliyapa commended government for setting up Cert but said the results might not be 100 percent because tracking connectivity on issues to do with ICT is tough.
“You see, people can use proxy connections or servers to get information in a disguised manner and those who want to get information from government this way can still get it. In China, Facebook is not allowed but people still use proxy servers to go onto F acebook. However as I have already said this is good for government but in technology you cannot succeed to entirely block things,” he said. n
