NITA-U gears up for annual Cyber Defence East Africa 2016 conference
On 27th -29th September 2016, the National Information Technology Authority – Uganda (NITA-U) together with NRD Companies are organising the fourth annual Cyber Defence East Africa 2016 conference (CDEA).
Cybersecurity is a buzzword, overused by vendors, media, and politicians. CDEA serves as a practical knowledge sharing, skills building and networking platform, aimed to address cyber security issues and bring together the Government, the ICT Industry and Academia in efforts to create a better and more secure digital environment for the states, governments, businesses and citizens in East Africa.
Even though major data breaches have hit the headlines worldwide, highlighting increased need for skilled security professionals and service providers, many organisations still rely on ad hoc, manual processes. Executive management often fails to recognise the impact of cyber security on business processes, and therefore risk damaging organisations’ data, assets and reputation.
In order to assist East African organisations in overcoming these burdens, NRD companies have been organising annual Cyber Defence East Africa conferences for the last four years.
The last three conferences took place in Tanzania and were organised together with ISACA Tanzania Chapter in years 2013 and 2014, and in cooperation with Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) in 2015. This year, in order to widen the reach of this initiative and recognising Uganda’s commitment to increasing cyber security in the country, it was decided to organise Cyber Defence East Africa 2016 in Kampala, in cooperation with NITA-U.
Both trainings will be delivered by a specialised cybersecurity technology consulting, incident response and applied Research Company NRD CS. NRD CS is currently assisting the Governments of Bangladesh and Bhutan in their National Computer Incident Response Teams (CIRTs/SOCs) establishment.
The Gold sponsor of the conference is the world’s 15th largest software company Synopsys, Inc. The conference is also sponsored by Radware.
NITA-U is mandated with coordinating national information security. As part of the Authority, the National Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center (CERT.UG/CC) was setup to help to ensure the protection of the nation’s Critical Information Infrastructure, assist in drafting the overall plan on the country’s approach to cyber security related issues and thus can serve as a focal point for further building and implementing the National Culture of cyber security.
Currently, Uganda ranks ten (10) globally and two (2) in Africa in the ITU Global Cybersecurity Index & Cyber wellness Profiles.
