The 17th Annual IGF Meeting Will Be Hosted By Ethiopia

The 17th annual IGF meeting will be hosted in a hybrid format by the Government of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa, under the overarching theme: Resilient Internet for a Shared Sustainable and Common Future. The interactive programme is being developed around five specific themes as listed below:

1. Connecting All People and Safeguarding Human Rights
2. Avoiding Internet Fragmentation
3. Governing Data and Protecting Privacy
4. Enabling Safety, Security and Accountability
5. Addressing Advanced Technologies, including AI

The meeting will aim at accommodating the participation of stakeholders present onsite in Addis Ababa or participating online in an equitable manner. This hybrid approach also extends to the session organizing teams (organizers, speakers, moderators, and rapporteurs) who will participate online or onsite. This further means that all session-engaged parties can participate onsite or online. The overall objective is to make participation in IGF 2022 meaningful and inclusive for all participants.

Preparations for IGF 2022 are ongoing. The First Open Consultations and MAG Meeting was held online from 23 to 25 February. It discussed the calls for feedback & improvements, as well as the call for thematic inputs. The Second IGF 2022 Open Consultations and MAG Meeting will be hosted at the United Nations Office at Geneva from 6 to 8 July 2022.

For the above-listed themes, members of the IGF 2022 Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) work on developing short, specific narratives.

AfICTA Chairman Represents the Interest of the African Private Sector at the AU-EU D4D Hub Event.

At the Africa-Europe D4D Hub Multi-stakeholder Forum, Mr. Thabo Mashegoane, AfICTA Chairman (Africa Private Sector Representative); Engr. Hossam Elgamal, AfICTA Immediate Past Chairman among other speakers from across all stakeholder groups both in Europe and Africa gave an insight into some aspects the Investment/Intervention from EU - European Union could be channeled to ensure the rapid realization of the global connectivity average of 30%.

The session’s main objective is in line with AfICTA’s Vision of fulfilling the promise of the digital age for everyone in Africa and the discussion was geared towards ensuring Africa's poor digital connectivity index which stands at 22% is appropriately dealt with.

The panel session was titled "The Global Gateway in Action: Advancing Digital Transformation and Joint Infrastructure Projects on Digital Connectivity" held virtually on Friday, March 18, 2022, and was moderated by Ms. Christine Mhunduwa, an International Journalist.

Some of the essential investment focus points highlighted are 1. Skillset development (Africa has 70% of its population as youths (under the age of 30) and building their skill set and capacity will be of great impact on the continent's GDP); 2. Green and Renewable Energy (solving the challenges of the old industrial revolution technology (Electricity) which most African nations are still grappling with is very essential to the sustainability of any other new technology); 3. Digital Sovereignty; 4. Internet Backbone; 5. Data and Cloud Infrastructure; 6. Net Neutrality (Open Internet for all with enabling regulation and policy against heavy taxes); 7. Infrastructure Security (physically, cybersecurity and regulation) etc.

Mr. Thabo Mashegoane during one of his speaking slots opined that seeing broadband connectivity today as an essential service as the provision of drinkable water and energy would bring about more attention and seriousness into ensuring its availability, safety, and affordability for everyone even the underserved and the unreached.

Regarding what viable financing models are applicable to connect the unconnected, particularly the underserved rural areas, Mr. Thabo Mashegoane recommended that Government (Public) & other patient capital investors could intervene in partnership with the Private sector as it would be challenging for the private sector to solely invest in such terrain of sparse (scatter) population, people with low income and poor adoption of technologies. Some of the initiatives by USAID's and Universal Service & Access Funds (USAFs), Africa Development Bank (ADB), and others were noted.

Further development of the financial institutions toward a sustainable digital economy was one of the major points mentioned by the Immediate Past Chairman of AfICTA, sighting the tough situation encountered by individuals and corporate bodies during the pandemic regarding access to their funds and exchange of funds. He also spoke more on digital skill-set enhancement for the teaming youth to pickup jobs of tomorrow that has time and location flexibility and could stand the test of time like the pandemic period.

One among many other recommendations at the session was that, in order to encourage digital connectivity adoption in Africa and ensure investors get a good return on their investment, Government should digitize their services such that people can access them online. The session was concluded at its 60^th minute.

On 24 March 2022, AfICTA in collaboration with the Kemitel S.A organized the 1st edition of its Quarterly webinar for 2022 on "Cryptocurrencies in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities".

It provided a platform for professionals from across Africa to discuss issues surrounding the regulation of cryptocurrency in the region highlighting the vast opportunities that could be beneficial to the economic landscape and proffering recommendations on a suitable regulatory framework for the Cryptocurrency market.

The webinar was a very successful one with panelists and participants from all over Africa online who enriched the collective discourse. Among the highly esteemed panellists were: HHI J Olutoyin Oloniteru, Executive Director, Data Analytics Privacy Technology (DAPT); Eric Tchepannou, TechOps Engineer; Christel Youbi, CEO, A&M Group; Rakim Omar, Business Development Director, RayaIT.

Mr. Thabo Mashegoane, the Chairman of AfICTA welcomed all the panelists and the participants for joining the Q1 webinar for the year 2022. He appreciated the theme of the event being addressed by the host and how pertinent the issue is in the current financial market in Africa and globally.

Furthermore, he highlighted that AfICTA as an advocacy group strives to promote the practice of multistakeholderism in all engagement in the ICT ecosystem in the continent hence the reason that people from all stakeholder groups have been invited to benefit from the discourse.

The panellists answered key questions from the Moderator based on the theme of the event to give recommendations on the regulation of Cryptocurrency in Africa.

Mr. Olutoyin Oloniteru was asked “What is, in your opinion the major benefits of cryptocurrencies for Africa” and he summarized that the major benefit of the cryptocurrency market for Africa is that it provides an opportunity for African countries to develop at relatively the same speed as other continents. It also engenders trues independence for most countries that were still colonized and under European country's control when the World Bank and IMF overlays were established in the 40s. It also provides the opportunity for Africa to create its own unique cryptocurrency that is designed based on the economic, and sociological realities in Africa while under legal boundaries. Finally, the creation of a unique cryptocurrency to serve its growing population also engender the implementation of the Africa Free Trade Agreement.

Finally, Mr. Toyin stated that "A hierarchical Crypto regime should be adopted whether there is one single and unified African Cryptocurrency which gives room for other cryptocurrencies t be mapped into it through a convertible model and framework. The advantage hers is that a single and with other national fiat money, traditional legal tender, fiat cryptocurrency and CBDC would be devaluation resistant."

Ms. Christel Youbi commented on the issues with the mass adoption of cryptocurrency in Africa elucidating that the major factor affecting adoption is the lack of centralized control of the digital currencies and the trust factor associated with exploring new technologies. African citizens are scared of the unknown due to the lack of control over the stability of digital currencies. She also highlighted that it is imperative that government rather than adding to the problem by prohibiting the use of the digital cryptocurrency should engage in widespread sensitization programs to demystify the misconception around trust and inform the general public on the value of cryptocurrency and in particular the benefits of having one which is unique to Africa.

Mr. Eric Tchepannou highlighted that as with anything new it takes time to fully get people on board but the risk element associated with the DLT and cryptocurrency trade, in general, is being worked on continuously. He stated that the multi-signature concept is being integrated into the bitcoin cryptocurrency protocol. There is risk associated with any new venture and we must take the responsibility of catering to our assets by ensuring we trade in cryptocurrencies with a proven track record as that is the price for the freedom which comes with the crypto market.

Mr. Karim also added that the dichotomy between the CBDC and the decentralized digital cryptocurrencies is in the adoption of these technologies. He stated that in some countries where Cryptocurrencies have to be accepted as legal tender, they also considered the adoption of CBDC with KPIs and rules which help creates a better instrument for regulation and more reliable investment. Secondly, he added that the idea of a "stable coin" does not necessarily have to be completely decentralized but can be blockchain-inspired and can be adopted by the monetary institutions to better accommodate cryptocurrencies and the nation's legal tender.

Mr. Toyin emphasized the need for a curriculum on cryptography and the underlying technology involved from the basic education level. He also added that the issues of fraud and corruption in cryptocurrency should be an issue that the intelligence and security agencies need to address but if the central Bank the zenith financial institution if banned the use of cryptocurrencies then how can they learn and understand the necessary skills to carry out crypto forensics and prosecute bad actors. He concludes that there has to be continuous formal training for stakeholders both in the private and public sectors as all attempts to foster stability, trust, and adoption would be counterintuitive if people are not aware of the basic underlying technology and the best instrument to properly regulates the crypto space.

The Cryptocurrency paradigm provides an opportunity for Africa as a continent to leverage this emerging technology to accelerate our digital transformation strategy and the public sector's disposition of prohibition towards the adoption of cryptocurrency albeit founded on very important concerns on regulation, attribution, and trust frameworks need to be dissuaded. The government in African countries should rather synergize on leveraging the technology to create its own unique unified Afro cryptocurrency as this addresses the concerns of devaluation of national legal tender affecting most African countries. A Central African-wide cryptocurrency platform that imbibes the multi-stakeholder approach needs to be established in order to discuss and address the issues of regulation and adoption of cryptocurrency as this is the future.

Read Full Report Here.

Watch the full session Here.

Africa Information & Communication Technologies Alliance (AfICTA) as a prominent private sector advocating for businesses in Africa is very concerned with the issues of cybersecurity and data protection. As such, AfICTA has organized several webinars and sessions at events in the past to raise awareness on the issues of Cybersecurity and its effect on businesses and the digital economy in general. AfICTA, an alliance of ICT Associations, Companies, Organisations and individuals in the ICT sector in Africa has professionals in the cyber security space and in the vein of raising awareness on the severity of DNS abuse and cyber threats, Mr Kileo, an AfICTA board member and cybersecurity expert from Tanzania has discussed some of the necessities for everyone in order to be more cyber vigilant. He also enlightens everyone on some of the techniques cybercriminals use to steal logins and how to protect our online identity.

The concept of using a secret series of characters that enables a user to access a file, computer, or program was introduced into computing way sooner than most of us can remember – Password contains a unique string of characters used to restrict access to computers and sensitive files.

One reason for the enduring popularity of passwords is that people know instinctively how they work. But there’s also a problem. Passwords are the Achilles’ heel of the digital lives of many people, especially as we live in an age when the average person has 100 login credentials to remember, with the number only trending upwards in recent years. It’s little wonder many people cut corners and security suffers as a result.

“Given that the password is often the only thing standing between a cybercriminal and your personal and financial data, crooks are more than eager to steal or decrypt them and sometimes disable protection of these logins” So says Yusuph Kileo, a cybersecurity and digital forensics expert.

Kileo urges internet users not to use users account name or any data that appears in your record as a password, any word or name that appears in any dictionary, Phrases and slang with or without space, Alphabetic, numeric, or keyboard sequences, titles of books, movies, poems, essays, songs, CDs, or musical compositions and any personal information.

What can cybercriminals do with my password?

Passwords are the virtual keys to your digital world – providing access to your online banking, email and social media services, our Netflix and Uber accounts, and all the data hosted in our cloud storage. With working logins, a cybercriminal could steal your personal identity information and sell it to fellow criminals, selling access to the account itself.

Dark web criminal sites do a brisk trade in these logins. Unscrupulous buyers could use access to get everything from free taxi rides and video streaming to discounted travel from hijacked Air Miles accounts or use them to unlock other accounts where you use the same login credentials.

How do cybercriminals steal passwords?

Familiarize yourself with these typical cybercrime techniques and you’ll be far better placed to manage the threat:

1. social engineering

Human beings are fallible and suggestible creatures. We’re also prone to make the wrong decisions when rushed. Cyber-criminals exploit these weaknesses through social engineering, a psychological con trick designed to make us do something we shouldn’t. Shoulder surfing and phishing are the most famous example.

Shoulder surfing.

Shoulder surfing is the name given to the procedure that identity thieves use to find out passwords, personal identification numbers, account numbers and more. It happens to be the easiest way one could easily get someone’s password – a cybercriminal will just look at your shoulder as you enter your password.

As lockdowns ease and many workers start heading back to the office, it’s worth remembering that some tried-and-tested eavesdropping techniques also pose a risk.

A more hi-tech version, known as a “man-in-the-middle” attack involving Wi-Fi eavesdropping, can enable hackers sitting on public Wi-Fi connections to snoop on your password as you enter it in while connected to the same hub. Both techniques have been around for years, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still a threat.

Phishing.

Here, hackers masquerade as legitimate entities: like friends, family, and companies you’ve done business with etc. The email or text you get will look authentic but includes a malicious link or attachment which, if clicked on, will download malware or take you to a page to fill in your personal details.

Scammers are even using phone calls to directly elicit log-ins and other personal information from their victims, often pretending to be tech support engineers. This is described as “vishing” (voice-based phishing).

“Of late, most people have fallen victims to vishing – One would receive a call from someone posing as a bank personnel and start extracting information from an individual,” Says Kileo.

He added, he receives many complaints from individuals asking his opinions after facing this kind of attack.

2. Malware

Another popular way to get hold of your passwords is via malware. Phishing emails are a prime vector for this kind of attack, although you might fall victim by clicking on a malicious advert online (malvertising), or even by visiting a compromised website (drive-by-download).

Malware could even be hidden in a legitimate-looking mobile app, often found on third-party app stores.

There are various varieties of information-stealing malware out there but some of the most common are designed to log your keystrokes or take screenshots of your device and send it back to the attackers.

3. Guesswork

The average number of passwords the average person has to manage increased by an estimated 25% year-on-year in 2020. Many of us use easy-to-remember (and guess) passwords as a consequence and recycle them across multiple sites.

The most common password of 2021 was “123456”, followed by “123456789”. Coming in at number four was the one and only “password”. this makes it easier for cybercriminals to guess someone’s correct password.

And if you’re like most people and recycle the same password, or use a close derivate of it, across multiple accounts, then you’re making things even easier for attackers and putting yourself at additional risk of identity theft and fraud.

4. Brute forcing

In a brute force attack, the program guesses the password by trying every single combination of characters until the password is found. It is the slowest method of password attack, but can be successful against short and simple passwords. For example, the program might follow a sequence like: • “aaaaa” • “aaaab” • “aaaac”.

Cybercriminals feed large volumes of previously breached username/password combinations into automated software. The tool then tries these across large numbers of sites, hoping to find a match. In this way, hackers can unlock several of your accounts with just one password. There were an estimated 193 billion such attempts globally last year, according to one estimate. One notable victim recently was the Canadian government.

How to protect your login credentials

Kileo strongly calls on internet users to use only strong and unique passwords with at least eight characters which include a digit, punctuation upper and lower case on all your online accounts, especially your banking, email and social media accounts. “One can choose a phrase or combination of words to make the password easier to remember or maybe two words separated by a non-letter non-digit and non-printing characters” He added.       

It is also advised to change your password regularly and avoid recycling them or making minor variations such as incrementing a digit and using different passwords on different machines. Avoid reusing your login credentials across multiple accounts and making other common password mistakes.

Switch on two-factor authentication (2FA) on all your accounts

Use a password manager, which will store strong, unique passwords for every site and account, making log-ins simple and secure.

Never log on to an account if you’re on public Wi-Fi; if you do have to use such a network, use a VPN.

“The demise of the password has been predicted for over a decade. But password alternatives still often struggle to replace the password itself, meaning users must take matters into their own hands. Stay alert and keep your login data safe” He concluded.