The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has today announced that Kenya will be joining the global community in observing the 2024 October Cybersecurity Awareness Month (OCSAM).
OCSAM is a month long event observed by both the public and private sector with a goal of raising awareness on cyber safety and cybersecurity through various activities designed to equip consumers with necessary knowledge to safeguard themselves online.
This month is the fourth edition that the CA has marked as part of OCSAM through various initiatitives to enhance national cyber readiness. The 2023 installation saw the government launch a Hackathon and Bootcamp series as part of activities in collaboration with Huawei Kenya and the Kenya Cybersecurity Forensics Association.
In its statement, the Authority acknowledged that the number and severity of cyberattacks against Kenya’s infrastructure sectors have risen over the last few years. In the fiscal year that ended in June 2024 alone, the country experienced over 3.5 billion attacks with more than 90% of them exploiting system vulnerabilities.
“System vulnerabilities remain the weak link with increased use of Internet of Things (IoT) gadgets, many of which are intrinsically unsafe,” CA states. “Other weaknesses include incorrect set-up of systems, outdated software
and the changes brought about by emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI).”
However, the CA has committed itself to continue seeking strategic engagements in cross-cutting issues in cybersecurity governance, capacity and capability development, information sharing and cyber incident response.
As part of this year’s initiative, Kenya and the United States, in collaboration with the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) plan to hold a reginal event in October 2024 dubbed The African Regional Cyber Sector Collaboration Symposium. The event is designed to “engender information-sharing frameworks between cybersecurity incident response teams for a more resilient cyberspace in Africa”.
