A two-day capacity building workshop on National Computer Incident Response Teams (CIRT) opened in Nairobi today hosted by CCK in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Communications and the George Mason University, USA.

The workshop will discuss among others cyber risk and defense, national cyber security framework, the role of national and sector CIRTs, regional collaboration, cyber security awareness and public key infrastructure. Country experiences in relation to cyber security efforts shall also be shared during the workshop.

Attended by various stakeholders in both government and the private sector, the workshop has drawn speakers from law enforcement, the Directorate of e-Government, the Telecommunications Service Providers Association of Kenya (TESPOK), KENIC, academia, the local ISACA chapter, information security professionals, the banking sector, the other East Africa ICT regulators and representatives from the International Cyber Centre at George Mason University (USA).

Delivering the key note speech on behalf of the Minister for Information and Communications, Information and Communications Permanent Secretary Dr. Bitange Ndemo said there was urgent need to establish a frontline defense to reduce current vulnerabilities and prevent intrusions as well as shape the future environment by enhancing research, development and investing in leap ahead technologies.

The capacity building workshop is being held against a backdrop of increasing use of ICT within government, the private sector and among individuals leading to a proliferation of communities of interest within global membership thus presenting convenient channels through which criminals can reach unsuspecting users.

Cyber crimes take various forms and include all manner of offences against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data systems, content, copyright and trademark, computer offences and cyber terrorism, cyber warfare and cyber laundering among other crimes.