Botswana & U.S. Host Sub-Saharan African Cybersecurity & Cybercrime Workshop

Office of the Spokesperson
Department of State
Washington, DC
June 5, 2014

The U.S. Department of State and the Government of Botswana, supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, will host a Sub-Saharan African Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Workshop in Gaborone, June 4–6. U.S. Department of State Coordinator for Cyber Issues Christopher Painter will lead the U.S. Interagency Delegation and provide remarks along with U.S. Embassy Gaborone Chargé d’Affaires Michael J. Murphy; Botswana Ministry of Defence, Justice, and Security Permanent Secretary Segakweng Tsiane; and other officials from the Government of Botswana.

As use of Internet and mobile phones expands throughout sub-Saharan Africa, nations are grappling with multiplying cyber threats coming from transnational crime groups to terrorist groups. This workshop, a partnership between the U.S. and Botswana Governments, will address broad issues of cybercrime and cybersecurity while focusing on issues of specific interest to the sub-Saharan region such as combating cybercrime; mobile phone security; Internet freedom, access, and affordability; and the development of national computer emergency readiness teams, or CERTs.

Workshop attendees will include government officials from Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zambia. Regional organizations such as the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will contribute their ideas on cybersecurity and cybercrime. Distinguished guests from Symantec, the Botswana Information Technology Society, and the University of Botswana Computer Science Department will share perspectives on cyber issues.

This workshop, the fourth in a series on this critical topic, supports the State Department’s priority of promoting cybersecurity and cybercrime capacity-building efforts across the globe.

To learn more about this workshop or other cyber policy efforts at the Department of State, please follow us on Twitter @State_Cyber, or contact us via email at SCCI_Press@state.gov. To learn more about U.S. Embassy Gaborone, please like our Facebook page.