The increasing number of South Africans in rural communities becoming citizens of the Internet, is driving the need for these new users to become cyber security conscious, says Dr Marthie Grobler, researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research's (CSIR) Defence, Peace, Safety and Security unit.
The CSIR and the University of Venda's schools of Mathematical and Natural Sciences as well as Management Sciencesare collaborating to raise cyber security awareness in rural communities.
On 4 September a group of four CSIR researchers trained a number of student volunteers at the university to teach specific groups of computer users including secondary school users; further education training users; university (non-technical) users; and community centre users.
“We have seen more rural communities become integrated into the global village due to increased hardware and software corporate donations, the proliferation of mobile Internet devices and government programmes aimed at bridging the digital divide,” says Grobler.
Cyber self-defence
“However, we've found that new netizens in rural communities are not cyber security savvy. This is why we've introduced cyber security self-defence workshops for volunteer facilitators in Venda,” she adds.
According to Grobler, discussions for the initiative started at the end of 2009 but the formal planning, collaboration and the development of the cyber security awareness training programme officially commenced in May 2010.
“We have started to develop a similar programme for primary school computers users, and will soon start with a module focusing on lecturers and other university personnel. Once these modules are launched, we will be rolling the programme out to other provinces in collaboration with local universities as well,” she says.
broadband and the roll out of Internet access systems in rural areas throughout SA.
She explains that this has made the researchers more aware of the potential problems SA may face if all citizens are not adequately prepared for Internet usage.
“Currently, the low broadband penetration in Africa limits the utilisation of the Internet by the broader population. The current in-progress increase in broadband access will also increase the possibility of Internet utilisation for the development of locally-based service delivery for information technology use in municipal, business and community services,” Grobler elaborates.
However, she argues that though the broadband access will soon be available widely, the community is not wholly empowered to utilise the possibilities.
“In order to maintain the current level of technology integration and improve the level of technology utilisation within the communities, it is crucial for the government, universities and the public sector to assist these communities,” she notes.
She says although there are no specific incidences that were reported concerning Web security problems among rural communities, the CSIR was taking a leaf from events like the 2010 FIFA World Cup which brought with it different cyber scams demonstrating the vulnerability of SA with regards to activities in the cyber world.
Grobler also points out that although the project focuses specifically on computer users in the rural areas, there is also a definite need for quality cyber security awareness training among many people in the urban areas as well.
“In many ways, the Internet and cyber world is a dangerous place where innocent users can inadvertently fall prey to shrewd cyber criminals. In response, a training module was developed, not as a computer literacy course, but rather a self-defence course for surfing the Web”, she says.
The training module, adds Grobler, is part of a bigger project that aims to establish an Institute for Broadband and Rural ICT Development at the University of Venda to assist rural communities in adapting to the opportunities presented by broadband and other forms of ICT.
Grobler, however, laments that the biggest challenge that their initiative is facing is funding. "Although the money is available to develop a basic awareness programme, more funds are required to customise the programme specifically to SA and to train the communities.”
She also singles out logistical limitations as another challenge basseting the institute. “As part of the project, we developed surveys to assess the current level of cyber security awareness within the communities.
“Large numbers of these surveys were distributed to some of the community centres and schools participating in the project. Unfortunately, the response and return rate is not very high and it is difficult to do an adequate assessment based on the surveys that have been returned,” she says.
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