Communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda has trained his arsenal on cyber crooks, through the release of the Department of Communications' draft policy on cyber security.
With Internet access slowly on the rise locally, consumers and businesses will start seeing more vigorous security threats start trickling into SA, which the DOC now wants to combat proactively.
SA's cyber security has never been a priority for government, and the new policy represents a large-scale shift in the importance of ICT in the country.
Security matters have long been a matter for the private sector and industry organisations, which will now take the time to read through the new policy, which was released this week in the Government Gazette.
The minister's policy plans to provide direction for online security in the country, specifically with government backing. One of the key aspects of the policy is Nyanda's plan to introduce national and sector-based computer security incident response teams.
The policy follows in the wake of industry organisation Information Security Group (ISG) of Africa publishing notice of a new learnership, based on developing skills for a security response team.
The ISG is providing the training, primarily because SA does not have an established team to deal with possible threats. The courses take place next month and lecturers will include some top security specialists from around the world.
ISG may well work with government to provide skills for a national response team.
Government is also planning to develop a Cyber Security Advisory Council that will advise the minister on policy matters. It will also be responsible for pulling together all security matters across government departments, essentially bringing it all under the control of the DOC.
“SA does not have a coordinated approach in dealing with cyber security. While various structures have been established to deal with cyber security issues, the structures are inadequate to deal with cyber security holistically,” the department's policy explains.
The DOC says there are various legal provisions made to address online security risks. However, it adds that they do not address the actual challenges that locals face. The department hopes to bring together the legal aspects with the technological aspects and create a consolidated approach to possible threats.
The ISG has indicated it will discuss its thoughts on the policy with ITWeb later today.
Share