The African Cyber Risk Institute (ACRI) will on Wednesday this week host the first ever Cyber Security Conference featuring highly esteemed experts comprising of some of the top global hacking and cyber crime experts from around the world.
“After realising that 75% of all security hacks and breaches occur because of human weakness, we wish to strengthen human capacity to understand the threats and take measures to defend valuable information and critical systems,” says Sharon Mothusi, ACRI project and Public Relations assistant.
She further outlined that the main objectives of the conference is to, among other things, strengthen networking and active participation in combating cyber crime, develop strategies for combating various types of cyber crimes, help delegates to learn crucial strategies and practices to prevent data leakage and to help organisations to develop techniques, best practices and strategies to defend their data.
“We also aim to share with delegates the new threats in the field of high-tech and cyber crime, exchange views on threats from social media, cloud and mobile devices and promote the existence of our organisations and promote our services and become a focal point for cyber security awareness in Botswana and Africa,” she added during an interview with Sunday Standard. The conference that is slated for October 22 will be held at Cresta Lodge in Gaborone.
The main speakers will include Dimitri Fouskeis, who is a highly respected and experienced ethical hacker who is globally known for finding critical vulnerabilities in systems and also very well known for cracking complex passwords. He is head of penetration testing at Telspace (Hackers for Hire). Another distinguished speaker at the highly esteemed conference is Dr. Christiaan Roos who holds a PHD in hacking and IT AuditingÔÇô Ethical hacking in banking sector.
Dr Roos is also the vice president of Barclays Africa based in Johannesburg. He is highly respected for developing defense strategies for hacking attacks on Banks. Another speaker who is highly anticipated is Marshall Potts, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) & Chairman Jaspers Global Cyber Crime Centre, which offers United Kingdom (UK) certified professional qualifications in Cyber Crime in four continents.
Mothusi also said that, when it comes to cyber space border, “no government can practically defend the nation’s critical systems i.e. finance, transport, power, utilities, government systems and etc, so we need a cyber aware citizens who understand the threats and basic understanding of how to protect their devices.”
She said that the cyber war is brewing and a cyber attack on Botswana by state or non-state actors would come through a successful attack on an ordinary user. “Bad guys do not go for the highly defended systems. That is why African Cyber Risk Institute takes it upon itself to provide services not only the traditional advisory and education sector but Research and Outreach.”
She added that the conference will address issues on cyber crime that are the most crucial aspects of developing capacity to protect systems, detect breaches and recover from attacks.
She gave an example of one international financial institution, JP Morgan, which was hacked resulting in 76 million customers’ data being stolen.
“In return JP Morgan doubled their cyber security budget as a result of this,” she said. “If this can happen to JP Morgan, how about Bank of Botswana, BBS, BSB, NDB, Barclays, FNB, Banc ABC, Capital Bank, Standard Chartered?” she asked. The African Cyber Risk Institute offers free hacking service to highly critical and well-defended systems. If organisations signs up, they can break their system and indicate the weakness.
