Kenya,USA sign deal to fight cyber-crime

david nganga

July 3, 2017 4:20 PM

The deal comes in the wake of the Sh17.7 billion lost by Kenya to cyber-crime in 2016.

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Kenyan and the United States have signed an agreement to fight cyber-crime in the country as it has become a menace to governments and business entities worldwide.

In the deal struck by senior officials from the two countries, they agreed to work together in the area of Internet policy formulation and share information regarding cybercrime.

In addition, the US administration committed to train at least 100 Kenyans on cyber security.

Cyber-crime has in recent past grown to be a global major problem that has cost public and private companies billions of dollars annually.

Speaking during the partnership meeting, ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru spoke on the essence of the deal between the countries in the wake of the global cyber-attack.

“In cyberspace you can no longer operate alone. We’ve seen that an attack from Ukraine can go anywhere. An attack from Kenya can go anywhere. This co-operation across different markets is very key,” he said.

Petya, a malicious software has infected thousands of computers, locking up files and demanding ransom to decrypt data.

The malware, which originated from Ukraine, spread to a host of countries including the US, UK and Germany though no attacks have so far been reported in the country.

Kenya was last year ranked as the 24 most vulnerable country to cyber-attack with five other African countries being among the top 10 most attacked countries worldwide.

Kenya also lost close to Sh17.7 billion to cyber-crime in 2016 making it one of the costliest attacks in Africa at 0.28 per cent of the GDP.

david nganga