The 2024 FIRST & AfricaCERT Symposium for the African and Arab Regions will be held at the AVANI Victoria Falls Resort in Livingstone, Zambia, from November 26-28, 2024. This event is co-hosted by AfricaCERT, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA).

Participants are expected to comprise global FIRST Member Teams and CSIRTs from the African and Arab regions. We also expect to attract network operators, anti-abuse teams, and other security professionals from these regions.

Sessions will be presented in English with French translation services available.

Brief synopsis: The course is a collaborative effort by the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) and the AfricaCERT. It will run online for 3 hours per a day from 4 to 6 September 2024. (9 am – 12.30 PM UTC)

The technical training is designed to equip participants with skills in incident response, cyber threat intelligence (CTI) utilization, and sensitive information sharing using the Traffic Light Protocol (TLP). Through simulated exercises, participants will gain practical experience in handling an advanced persistent threat (APT) targeting a Critical Network Infrastructure (CNI). The training will provide access to a compromised system and open-source tools and will be facilitated by trainers from FIRST and the AfricaCERT. Join us to enhance your expertise in open source tools, network monitoring, IOCs detection, MITRE ATT&CK framework to understand cyber adversary tactics and techniques, and CTI sharing using TLP.

Register in advance for this webinar at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vpiOJmEVRCOv4CrCweDDPg

The Forum of Africa Emergency Response Teams (also known as AfricaCERT) has completed the third Annual Cyber drill (also known as Africa Cyber Drill) under the theme: “Fill the Gaps” in Maputo, Mozambique from 7th to 10th November 2023. The third cyber drill followed the successful second edition: “Stay on Alert” and the first edition: “Testing the waters”.

The hybrid event was hosted by the National Institute of ICT (INTIC) which is the host for the Mozambique National Computer Security Incident Response Team (nCSIRT.Mz), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) with the support from the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (CDP) – United States Department of State. The main objective of the cyber drill was to enhance the preparedness of the African teams against cyber threats. The joint event with the SADC Secretariat was a first-of-its-kind.

More information :

– Press release (English)

– Press release (French)

Achievement

CERT Introduction (CERT Training Course for Manager and Policy Maker)

CERT Training Course for Technical Staff

Advanced CERT Training Course (In Collaboration with JPCERT and APCERT)

AricaCERT Cyber-Security Day

CERT Introduction (CERT Training Course for Manager and Policy Maker)

•   2010.5.31      Kigali
•   2010.11.23    Johannesburg
•    2011.5.30     Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
•   2011.11.21     Yaounde  [in French]  [in English]
•   2012.5.7        Banjul, Gambia
•   2012.11          Khartoum

CERT Training Course for Technical Staff

•    2010.11.23          Johannesburg
•   2011.5.31~6.2     Dar es Salaam
•   2012.5.7~9          Banjul, Gambia

Advanced CERT Training Course (In Collaboration with JPCERT and APCERT)

•   2011.6.3~4          Dar es Salaam
•   2011.11.19~20     Yaounde
•   2012.5.10~11      Banjul, Gambia

AricaCERT Cybers-Security Day

Security Workshop             2010. 02. 30               Kigali, Rwanda.

AfricaCERT I                        2011.11.22                   Yaounde

AfricaCERT II                       2012.5.12                    Banjul, Gambia

AfricaCERT III: “Enhanced Collaboration”               2012.11.26.         Khartoum, Sudan

AfricaCERT IV: “What Solution for the African Continent”              2013.06.19           Lusaka, Zambia

The 2023 FIRST & AfricaCERT Symposium for the African and Arab Regions will be held at the Marriott Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda over the dates of February 28 through March 3, 2023. Co-hosted by AfricaCERT and the National Cyber Security Authority (NCSA) of Rwanda. The event will be available in hybrid format, with in-person and virtual admission available.

More information is at:
https://www.first.org/events/symposium/africa-arab-regions2023/

History of the Regional Symposium

In 2015, AfricaCERT engaged with FIRST with a global framework that included fellowship and hosting an Annual meeting in Africa. The Inaugural Symposium (Accra Regional Symposium – Joining Forces to Promote Cybersecurity in Africa) was held in Accra (GHA) 28 – 30 September, 2015.

More information at: 
https://www.first.org/events/symposium/accra2015/

Meeting Report

More information about AfricaCERT and FIRST Collaboration

The Africa Computer Emergency Response Team (AfricaCERT) has completed its Annual Cyber Drill to test the capability of Computer Security Incident Response Teams in African economies from September 8 to 9 2022. A Coordination team comprised of AfricaCERT, Benin Incident Response Team (bjCSIRT), Computer Emergency Response Team of Mauritius (CERT-MU), National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team Coordination Center (National KE-CIRT/CC), KEYSTONE (Tunisia), Moroccan Computer Emergency Response Team (maCERT), Tunisian Computer Emergency Response Team (tunCERT) organized the Drill. CERT-MU chaired this 2022 edition. The scenarios were provided by CERT-MU, maCERT, and Keystone and supported by SILENSEC CYBER RANGES platform.

Two sections made the drill’s structure: protocol with high inspirational speakers and technical scenarios. After the welcome address, Mr. Chris Gibson, Executive Director, Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), talked about the importance of African CSIRTs for FIRST and various FIRST initiatives to support incident response within Africa. He also stressed the importance of exercises for incident response teams. The Honorable Cina Lawson, Minister of Digital Economy and Transformation of Togo, opening the drill, expressed her appreciation and encouragement for such an initiative, outlining the multistakeholder imperative, including public and private partnerships to keep cyberspace secure. The Honorable Cina Lawson also unveiled more details about the African Center for Coordination and Research in Cybersecurity (ACCRC) created by the Togolese Government and UNECA. Mr. Serge Valery Zongo, representing Ms. Anne Rachel Inne, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Regional Director for Africa encouraged the participants to strengthen collaboration and have a holistic approach to addressing cyber issues. Dr. Sherif Hashem, Chairman of the Forum Incident Response Team, during the closing remarks thanked all the participants for the collaborative initiative.

The Drill aimed to test the response capability of participating teams facing the following scenarios: Business Email Compromise, SQL injection, and Supply chain vulnerabilities. The scenarios were designed to reflect the real-time environment.
Computer Security Incident Response teams from various sectors participated in the 2022 edition. The African countries participating in the Drill are Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Republic of Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Seychelles, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togolese Republic, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zambia. Colleagues from OIC-CERT and APCERT (Bangladesh, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Uzbekistan, and Turkey) as well as from Latin America joined African Teams. 50 Computer Security Incident Response Teams from 39 countries have participated in the Drill, including the organizing teams. Observers from the Africa Cyber Defense Forum, Ciberobs, the National Cybersecurity Agency of Togo, and the UK Home Office participated in the Drill.

~ End ~

Download the Press release – 2nd Africa CYBER DRILL – Stay on Alert.

Issued by AfricaCERT Secretariat.
For further inquiries about this document, please feel free to contact secretariat (at) africacert.org

Accra, Ghana. The African Forum of Computer Incident Response Teams (AfricaCERT) collaborates with ISC2 to continue empowering more cyber professionals and to touch every aspect of information security in Africa.

A cohort of engineers from AfricaCERT members and partners organizations attended from July 11 – 15 an AfricaCERT Official (ISC)² CISSP Certification Boot Camp as part of this agreement. Future training sessions to be announced via usual channels.

“Bringing globally-recognized cybersecurity education and exam opportunities to as many communities as possible is essential to addressing the global cybersecurity skills shortage of 2.7 million and supporting the many vibrant and evolving economies across Africa,” said Tara Wisniewski, Executive Vice President, Advocacy, Global Markets, and Member Engagement. “(ISC) ² welcomes the opportunity to partner with AfricaCERT on delivering these classes to help elevate cybersecurity skills, standards, and best practices, along with creating new career opportunities by extending the reach of our cybersecurity certifications across Africa.”

Jean-Robert Hountomey, AfricaCERT CoFounder and Executive Director said: “The partnership with “(ISC)² strengthens our commitment for a safer, more resilient African cyberspace that remains an engine of development, growth, and opportunity.”

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AfricaCERT Press Release – July 25, 2022.

For inquiries, please contact secretariat (at) africacert.org

The Africa Computer Emergency Response Team (AfricaCERT) has completed its first annual Drill to test the capability of Computer Security Incident Response Teams in African economies from 30 June – 01 July 2021.

A Coordination team comprised of AfricaCERT, bjCSIRT (Benin), CERT-MU (Mauritius), EGCERT (Egypt), KE-CIRT (Kenya), KEYSTONE (Tunisia), tunCERT (Tunisia) organized the Drill. CERT-MU chaired this 2021 edition; the scenarios were provided by CERT-MU and EGCERT and supported by SILENSEC CYBER RANGE platform.

More information:
africacertdrill2021pressrelease_eng5

africacertdrill2021pressrelease_fr1

GHANACERT-GH Team information

Official team name:               Ghana Computer Emergency Response Team

Team host organization:      Ministry of Communications

Country of team:                   Ghana

Public WWW server:           https://cybersecurity.gov.gh/cert

Constituency

Type of constituency:         Ghana society

Team contact information

Regular telephone number  +233-503185846

E-mail address:    cert-gh@cybersecurity.gov.gh

Postal address:      c/o Ministry of Communications, P.M.B Ministries Post Office,

Accra. Ghana

Timezone:         GMT