The Government of Rwanda partnered with CIO East Africa to host the East Africa Cloud and Security Summit purposed to share experiences, debunk cyber security and myths around cloud computing. The event brings together hundreds of IT and Cyber Security experts comprising Cyber Governance and Compliance Teams, CISOs, CIOs, CTOs IT Architects in the public and business enterprises – who’re the budget holders with the real challenges looking for the best solutions.

Opening the summit officially, Minister Paula Ingabire said there is a critical need to think on how to respond to cyber-attacks. “We should critically and deliberately think about how to respond to cyber-attacks. We need to put in place strategies that ensure all stakeholders across the entire ecosystem work together to address cyber-attacks.” Said Minister Ingabire.

Challenging the participants, Minister Paula asked “How can we quickly up skill and train different cyber security engineers that are going to safeguard our cyberspace and information assets? How do we build sensitization programs that are understandable by our population, citizens and consumers when we educate them on cyber security? But more fundamentally, how do you ensure that information that consumers receive or give you is protected? How do we ensure privacy by design?”

Mr. Innocent Muhizi: CEO of Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA) noted “Since ICT and Internet are increasingly becoming a tool of everyday life, it was timely for us to up our national preparedness for cyber security threats.”

He also mentioned the importance of the Summit for various institutions, saying “Cyber security continues to be a multi-disciplinary topic that demands nuanced responses. That’s why this summit is so important, bringing together key stakeholders from around East Africa and beyond. Much of it is a grind of improving hundreds and thousands of systems and processes in both public institutions and business enterprises.”

The summit is part of Cyber Security Awareness Week; scheduled from 25th to 30th March 2019, having “Safe and Secure Services Online” as a theme. The focus is to bring on board everyone to understand the need for safety and security online, measures to protect themselves against cyber threats. Moreover, it aims at building national capabilities toward cyber security by educating Rwandan’s citizens on internet security threats, recognize cyber security threats and how they can respond to them appropriately.