University tackles rising cybercrime in Central Africa

Cameroon’s University of Buea (UB) has begun training cyber-security experts in a new facility that can accommodate up to 1,000 students a year. This is part of a drive to tackle the growth in cybercrime in the country and the Central African sub-region and to alleviate an estimated shortage of about 100,000 cybercrime-certified professionals in Africa.

Cybercrime, accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis, has reportedly increased dramatically in the past few years. Almost half of businesses (46%) and a quarter of charities or organisations (26%) have been affected globally, according to a book titled The Benefits of Cyber Security Awareness Training within Universities. The increase was over a period of 12 months, ending in mid-2022.

In Cameroon, the situation is no different, a government report has stated.

According to the report, Cameroon lost XAF12.2 billion (about US$20 million) in 2021 to cybercrime, including losses from intrusion, scams, phishing and banking card skimming. Business e-mail compromise attacks are a major threat to companies in Cameroon.

According to Professor Michael Ekonde Sone, the UB deputy vice-chancellor in charge of teaching, professionalisation and the development of ICT, the training of cybercrime professionals at university level will help build cyber resilience.

“We are glad the University of Buea has embraced this opportunity that will go a long way to providing the needed human resources to curb the ill,” he said at a recent guided tour of the newly constructed and equipped IT training centre.

Public and private sector partnership

Following a memorandum of understanding between the university and DOBRE Technologies (DobreTech), the institutions will work together to offer training.

In addition to training about 1,000 cybercrime professionals per year, it will offer refresher courses for IT personnel in state institutions such as the police and gendarmerie to overcome the shortfall of cyber-security experts in the sub-region and Africa in general, Professor Ngomo Horace Manga, the vice-chancellor, said.

“With the new infrastructure, the University of Buea will become a techno hub for ICT certification training in the sub-region and it will be able to accommodate all its IT students in internships to provide the right skills and human resources needed in Africa at large,” he said.

About 78% of IT department heads in Africa believe that their organisations are not ready to fend off cyber attacks, despite increasing investments in security. This is due to an acute shortage of cyber-security specialists. A report says that, as of 2020, there has been an estimated shortage of at least 100,000 certified professionals on the continent.

“This training will help increase awareness, especially among the student communities who have become very vulnerable. They typically connect in a variety of security environments, especially with the growing trend for online learning, and this makes them particularly at risk,” Mua Felix, a third-year student at ICT University in Yaounde, told University World News.

However, the government says Cameroon has not relented in its efforts to deal with the situation.

“Apart from putting in place comprehensive legislation and adhering to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, the government, through the National Agency for Information and Communications Technologies, ANTIC, has been carrying out sensitisation and awareness campaigns in various institutions, including secondary schools and universities,” Professor Ebot Ebot Enaw, the director general of ANTIC, told University World News.

“Our awareness and action at individual level targets mostly the youth, who preponderantly use the internet,” he said.