The regularity with which rogue regimes and terrorist organizations are attacking corporations and government institutions in the civilized world using hackers and other underworld information technology devices should get all of us really  worried.
Late last year, Sony Corporation, an American flagship was attacked, literally bringing this important institution on its knees.
Classified information, including confidential emails between executives mentioning senior officials in Government were put on public display by attackers.
The whole thing was embarrassing, not just for Sony, but also for the Government of the United States of America.
But even more so for individuals whose privileged and personal communications that were meant to remain private ended up in the public.
The United States Government accused North Korea for the attack.
Sony was just about to release a film production that depicted the North Korean Leader in bad light.
But that is beside the point, the important thing to note here is that if such well capitalised companies like Sony can be attacked and their operations be virtually paralysed and defaced for such a long time as it happened in this case, just who is safe?
Thankfully for a company like Sony it was able to rise and restore its operations.
Not all businesses have the muscle to rise from such an attack.
Many security and intelligence analysts across the world are now agreed that the next biggest war in the world will be fought over the cyber space.
America concedes that China is already far ahead in that direction.
North Korea has a huge portion of its military dedicated just to cyber warfare.
Even such fringe and outlaws like terrorist organization, ISIS is already making a mark in this venture.
Just this week, Isis claimed responsibility for bringing down and defacing a French Government owned television network using cyber warfare.
The television’s nine channels were brought down, emails literally frozen and websites defaced.
And as we all know France is a very powerful nation when it comes to intelligence, technology but also security in general.
If such powerful countries like America and France can themselves be attacked by such ragged outfits like Isis in the instance of France and North Korea, surely everybody is vulnerable. It is thus imperative for the government of Botswana and also the private sector to start investing in cyber technology as a way of boosting the countries defence systems. Protecting oneself against cyber attacks is no longer a luxury but a fundamental of running both a government and business.
Risk assessment needs to be carried out periodically, including simulations on worst case scenarios.
As experience shows, there is no one system that is foul proof, but preparedness, it would seem is always crucial. It minimizes negative impacts and also helps work on response strategies in the event that such an attack happens. Countries that are ahead of us have already set up agencies, independent of established organisations like the police and military to look at cyber attack issues. Such organisations are adequately staffed, resourced and trained.
Perhaps that is where we too should be looking at as a country.
Perhaps it is time we as a country start evaluating the extent to which our cyber defences are tight.
