Fighting Cybercrime in Africa

Cyber threat is a big issue in Africa. A lot of cybercrime emanates from the continent, and threats spread easily because many servers and computers are not properly protected. Africa, as a continent, is vulnerable to a range of online criminal activities, including financial fraud, drugs and human trafficking, and terrorism. A Deloitte survey published by BuddeComm, an independent research and consultancy company , in the year 2011, found that banks in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia alone had lost US$245 million to cyber fraud which is quite a lot of money for countries without a highly developed banking systems. The aim of this study was to assess the efforts being made by African countries in fighting cybercrime. Towards this direction, specific structures put in place by East and West African countries were reviewed with Africa's capacity to win the fight against cybercrime as an overriding concern. The research revealed that the way forward is for Africa to learn from the experience of developed countries in fighting cybercrime. The fight against cybercrime requires coordinated effort among all stake holders such as government bodies, educational institutions, business organizations and law enforcement authorities.


Introduction
According to computer security e xperts, a lot of cyber crime emanates from the African continent, and these threats spread easily because many computer systems are not properly protected. The fight against cybercrime requires a cohesive and coordinated approach, but in Africa, poverty and underdevelopment are the ma jor causes for growth of cybercrime in the reg ion. The potential for internet abuse in Africa is also high. This is due to the lack of security awareness programmes or specialised training for the law enforcement agencies. Many watchers are warning that Africa is becoming a ma jor source of cyber-crimes; for example, Nigeria is ran ked as the leading State in the region as the target and source of malicious internet activities; and this is spreading across the west African sub-region [4].
Cybercrimes are crimes co mmitted on the internet using the co mput er as either a too l o r a targeted v ict im [10]. Cybercrimes invo lve both th e co mputer and the p erson behind it as victims, depending on which of the two is the ma in target. Hence, the computer could be looked at as either a target o r a too l [10]. Fo r e xamp le, h acking inv o lves attacking the computer's information and other resources. When the individual is the ma in target of cybercrime, the computer can be considered as the tool rather than the target. These crimes generally involve less technical e xpert ise as the damage done manifests itself in the real world and human weaknesses are generally exp loited.
The damage caused is largely psychological and intangible, making legal act ion against the variants more difficult. These are the crimes which have e xisted for centuries offline. Sca ms, theft and other fraudulent activities have existed even before the development of high-tech equipment. The same criminal has simply been given a tool which increases his/her potential pool of v ictims and makes him all the harder to trace and apprehend. There are numerous crimes of this nature committed daily using the computer and the internet.
In achieving the aim of the study, assessing the efforts being made by African countries in fighting cybercrime, the authors interrogated the pervasive nature of the phenomenon of cybercrime. Factors that contributed to the thriving state of this kind of crime was looked at across the African continent, citing the East and West African b locks. The study sought to establish the need for collaboration with developed countries that achieved better results in the fight against cybercrime.
Lac k o f legal framework and the existence of weak infrastructures for dealing with cybercrime in the studied African countries justifies the need for such a study. The involvement o f top level government officials, policy ma kers and implementation groups must be highlighted at all levels of discussion and coupled with cross-border collaboration, is a justifiab le route for success in fighting cybercrime.

Methods
The paper interrogated the efforts being made by African countries in fighting cybercrime. This research rev iewed the efforts being made by East and West African countries.

Efforts In Fighting Cybercrime In Eas t Africa
East African countries have scaled up efforts to combat cyber crimes through a multi-stakeholder approach involving the government, industry and civil society organizations. A cyber security management task force chaired by Kenya has been coordinating activities aimed at rooting out cyber crimes in the five East African Co mmunity me mbe r countries. This taskforce deals with cyber security at legal, policy and regulatory levels.
A plan for the five East African states of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi to set up Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) to fight cybercrime is under way, as countries concerned seek to involve the International Telecommunications Union's (ITU) help. The East African Co mmunications Organisations (EACO) Congress, an umbrella body of all five regulators, will pursue ITU support for the establishment of the national CERTs.[2] [7] The five regulators will also establish a collaborative framework for the national CERTs at regional and international levels.
EA CO will work to establish and harmonize Internet security policies and Internet laws in the East African region. EA CO has also adopted a proposal for telecommun ications operators to form and run sectoral CERTS and no minate rep resentatives to sit on national CERTs.
The five me mber states are each at different stages of developing their Internet laws, but the laws will be uniform across the board, with just a few in-country peculiarities sticking out.
Uganda's Internet security legal framework, fo r examp le, has three sets of draft laws --the Electronic Transactions Bill, the Computer Misuse Bill and the Electronic Signatures Bill. All three pieces of legislation are in Parliament, due to be acted on before the end of the year.
Uganda's Electronic Transactions (eTransactions) Bill is meant to facilitate the development of electronic co mmerce in the country, and the Electronic Signatures (eSignatures) Bill will ensure transactions are carried out in a secure environment. The Co mputer M isuse Bill spells out computer misuse offences like unauthorized modificat ion of co mputer material [2].

Efforts In Fighting Cybercrime-West Africa
The first West African Cyber Crime Su mmit was convened on 30th November, 2011 to 2nd December, 2011 in the Nigeria cap ital, Abuja. The Su mmit, organized by the Economic and Financial Crime co mmission ( EFCC) in collaboration with United Nation on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Economic Co mmunity of West African States (ECOWAS) and Microsoft, focused on the theme, "The Fight against Cybercrime: Towards Innovative and Sustainable Econo mic Develop ment". Part icipants fro m all over the world considered local and international cybercrime strategies and policies with a view to strengthening international cooperation and developing a regional road map that tackles cyber crime and fosters economic growth. [3] Over 450 people were in attendance from across the world including Togo, Guinea, Gu inea Bissau, Ga mb ia, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Niger, Austria, UK, France, USA, Turkey, South Africa, UAE, Tunisia and Nigeria. Various international and regional organizations were present, including United Nation on Drugs and Crime ( The summit focused on how to: • Position the fight against cybercrime as a national priority to help the economic develop ment in the reg ion.
• Provide a p latform to develop capacity build ing with scalable and sustainable resources.
• Strengthen trust by developing partnerships among various stakeholders at the national and international level; government, civ il society, academics, industry and international organizations.
• Showcase best practices and case studies of partner organization in co mbating cybercrime. [5] One form of cybercrime that has become especially associated with the region is the advance fee fraud, collectively known as "Nigeria" or "419" scams. Through schemes such as fake lotteries, bogus inheritances, ro mantic relationships, investment opportunities or -infamouslyrequests for assistance from officials, scammers promise an elusive fortune in exchange for advanced payments.
In Nigeria, the federal govern ment is fighting cyber crimes in the country with the help of some security outfits, part of which are the Econo mic and Financial Crime commission (EFCC), the National Security Adviser (NSA) and Nigeria Po lice Force. Other actors in the fight also include Nigerian Co mmunicat ions Co mmission (NCC), Depart ment of State Service (NSS), Nat ional Intelligence Agency (NIA), Nigeria Co mputer Society (NCS) and Nigeria Internet Group.
World Ban k and Microsoft Corporation had also enjoined the National Assembly to pass the Cyber Crime Bill in an effort to reduce the rate of internet fraud in the nation as it is damaging to the image of the nation.
Among other actions was the creation of the Directorate for Cyber security (DfC) by Nigerian Cybercrime Working Group (NCW G), as a permanent autonomous body within the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
The recently created computer Crime Prosecution Unit (CCPU) for the Office of the Attorney General by the presidency is also another act set to curb cybercrime.
The DfC is mandated to imp le ment the National Cyber-security In itiative (NCI). It's also charged with the responsibility of drafting all relevant laws for the p rotection of computer systems and networks in the nation; such laws would be passed by the National Assembly.
There has also been a legal framework with the goal of protecting critical information infrastructure in Nigeria. The legislation also seeks to criminalize conducts against ICT systems and conducts utilizing ICT systems to carry out unlawful/ illegal acts. [9] In line with Ghana's aim o f beco ming the hub of the informat ion superhighway on the west coast of Africa, the government in 2008 passed the Electronic Transactions Bill to protect private rights of Internet users and owners' websites. [6]

Conclusions
In East Africa, a taskforce co mprising government, industry and civil groups have been set up to deal with cyber security at the three levels of legal, policy and regulation. Also Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) have been set up in five East African states to fight cybercrime with other collaborative partners such as ITU and EACO.
In West African countries, led by ECOWAS, policies have been initiated in capacity-building, prio rit ising cybercrime issues and developing networks across the borders as a definite way in fighting cybercrime.
The study can confirm that cybercrimes have increased in sophistication and frequency. Individuals, business organizations and government bodies are all affected by cybercrime. Cybercrime also poses threat to the national security and the continent as a whole. Cyber attacks are a recurrent phenomenon in Africa due to infrastructural, legal and policy loopholes. There is no clear legislat ion. So me countries have not made the attempt to look at it yet.
The way forward is that, Africa should learn fro m the e xperience of developed countries in fighting cybercrime.

Recommendations
There is the need to develop a common platform to address cyber security since cybercrime crosses borders and cannot be fought by one country. As a region, Africa must begin to cooperate to deal with cyber threats at national and regional levels. Africa should establish a body to monitor and report cybercrimes across borders.
The approach should also involve governments, industry, civil society organizations and to a large e xtent security agencies. The fight against cybercrime requires coordinated effort among all stake holders such as government bodies, educational institutions, business organizations and law enforcement authorities.
Lawmakers must be well trained and sensitised to help implement legislat ion that addresses cyber threats at all levels, Africa needs strong Information and Co mputer Technology institutions to train cyber security experts with a strong e xpertise in system ad ministration, security audit, forensic investigation, informat ion security and software development to deal with the future challenges of cybercrime.