ADF

As Africa Closes the Digital Divide, It Must Improve Cyber Security ADF STAFF Internet Penetration Internet penetration in Africa lags behind much of the world, but the continent is catching up fast. Nations are investing heavily in fiber optic cables and other means to bring the internet to people of all income levels. Between 2017 and 2018, Africa achieved 20 percent growth in internet access, the fastest growth rate in the world. In Benin, Mozambique, Niger and Sierra Leone, the number of internet users more than doubled during that time. Today, 52 African countries are connected to submarine internet cables…

Militaries are Launching Cyber Commands, but Their Role is Still Being Debated ADF STAFF Throughout history, technological advances and new discoveries have led to military reorganization. Eight years after the first flight, planes flew in combat in World War I. Shortly thereafter, the first air forces were formed. Similarly, the advent of submarines led to underwater warfare, and space travel has spurred discussions on how to defend space.  Militaries have always adapted to changing threats. Their latest challenge is cyberspace.   Militaries typically are charged with defending the nation against foreign threats while police and other security agencies handle domestic…

Ghana’s Cyber Security Advisor Says the Country is Preparing for the Opportunities and Threats of a Digital World Since 2017, Dr. Albert Antwi-Boasiako has served as the national cyber security advisor to the government of Ghana. He is also the founder of e-Crime Bureau, a pan-African cyber security and digital forensics company. E-Crime Bureau has worked with police, military, and private and public institutions across the continent. It formed the first cyber security and digital forensics lab in West Africa. This interview has been edited to fit this format. ADF: In your current role as national cyber security advisor, you’re…

Story and photo by REUTERS Desire Koffi often walks through Koumassi, a working class district of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to buy old mobile phones from people for 500 CFA francs ($0.87) a pair. Back home, the 24-year-old artist smashes the phones with a hammer and pulls out the screens and keypads. He uses them for his paintings, which can take three to five days to complete. Koffi grew up in Koumassi and says he was drawn to recycling and incorporating e-waste into his art after seeing how it affected his environment. “My number one goal is to try, in my…

With Africa’s Internet Growth Comes More Risks and More Opportunity ADF STAFF  The prospects for crippling cyber attacks are no longer the stuff of science fiction and blockbuster movies. The tools of cyber warfare have been tested on large and small scales all over the globe.  In short, cyber attacks are here to stay. Perhaps Ukraine offers the most effective and well-known example. It was there, in December 2016, that the lights went out. Hundreds of thousands of residents were plunged into darkness for hours until workers could manually re-engage the electricity grid. A similar attack had occurred a year…

As the continent improves its communications infrastructure, it becomes a bigger target for cyber criminals ADF STAFF Separated by cultures, religions, languages and 8,458 kilometers, Morocco and India appear to have little in common. And yet, in late 2018, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work together on several fronts. One of the problems the two countries share is cyber crime. According to India’s Policy Commission, India ranks third in the world in terms of internet users, after the United States and China. India’s internet use grew sixfold between 2012 and 2017, with an annual growth rate of…

OSMA Shows that Athletic Competition Among Soldiers Can Have a Broad Impact ADF STAFF • Photos by OSMA The Organization of Military Sports in Africa (OSMA) was created with a simple goal in mind: Build bridges of friendship through sports. Organizers believe athletic competition among Soldiers from across the continent can accomplish things that hours of drills, conferences and other military training cannot.  “It contributes to the broader effort of peace and develops the ideals of fraternity, hospitality, integration and mutual understanding that characterizes the African armed forces,” Col. David Kadré of Burkina Faso, president of OSMA, told journaldebrazza.com. “These ideals…

Simple, Low-Cost Measures Can Put Militaries on Road to Cyber Security ADF STAFF An employee, spending one of countless days in front of a computer screen, opened an email and clicked on a link. That began the invasion. The worker, a computer technician at Saudi Aramco, a major Saudi Arabian oil company, presumably was well-schooled in the ways of careful computer use. But not, apparently, on August 15, 2012, during the holy month of Ramadan. The clicked link was all that hackers — calling themselves the “Cutting Sword of Justice” — needed to infiltrate one of the richest companies in…

Stopping online propaganda by extremists takes more than just shutting down the messenger ADF STAFF For years, the blueprint for countering extremist propaganda was straightforward: Insist to followers that their beliefs are wrong and that they are suffering as a result. Tell them to abandon their cause and that they will have better lives if they change sides. Repeat the countermessages as often as necessary. The only problem with countermessaging is that it rarely works. Dr. Cristina Archetti, author of “Terrorism, Communication and New Media: Explaining Radicalization in the Digital Age,” says that developers of anti-extremist messaging need to abandon…

REUTERS The“Nigerian Mona Lisa,” a painting lost for more than 40 years and found in a London apartment in 2018, has been exhibited in Nigeria for the first time since it disappeared. Tutu, a painting by Nigeria’s best-known modern artist, Ben Enwonwu, was painted in 1974. It appeared at an art show in Lagos the next year, but its whereabouts after that were unknown, until it resurfaced in north London. The owners, who wished to remain anonymous, had called in an expert in modern and contemporary African art to identify their painting. He recognized Enwonwu’s portrait. The owners put the…