Govt Receives Foreign Aid to Combat eCitizen Hackers
After facing the challenge of large-scale, consecutive cyber attacks, the government received a significant lift on Saturday, July 29 after agreeing to new partnerships with global tech titans such as Google and Microsoft.
The ICT Ministry announced in a joint statement with the tech companies that, as part of the agreement, regular exercises will be conducted on government-critical platforms to improve resilience and close security gaps.
Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo’s docket explains that private companies will be responsible for safeguarding vital infrastructure.
Oracle Technologies, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Huawei Technologies, and Dell Technologies are also candidates for the position.
The team will also share intelligence on emergent cyberattack trends to help government and private sector actors prepare for future attacks.
“Through this collaboration, the private sector will provide training and expertise to government agencies to close the cybersecurity skills divide.
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The statement stated in part, “We will promote cyber awareness and cyber education initiatives that empower individuals and organizations to adopt cyber security best practices, thereby improving our collective cyber hygiene as a nation.”
In the new partnership, policy frameworks and regulations will also be developed.
“The private sector brings innovation, agility, and specialized knowledge, while the public sector, which drives digital transformation, possesses regulatory authority and a broader understanding of national security concerns,” the Ministry stated.
Key services, such as eCitizen and Kenya Power tokens, experienced an outage after a group of cybercriminals operating under the pseudonym Anonymous Sudan targeted government websites and Kenyan businesses. Owalo’s ministry announced the partnership a few days after the incident.
eCitizen, Kenya Railways, and the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) all reported downtimes in their critical websites and communications infrastructure after being targeted by hackers.
The systems were restored six hours later.
Govt Receives Foreign Aid to Combat eCitizen Hackers
