TANZANIA REMARKS ON COMPUTER SECURITY FROM DIRECTOR OF THE TANZANIA DEVELOPMENT LEARNING CENTRE Senkodo: Secure computer technology to avoid blacklisting:

Senkodo: Secure computer technology to avoid blacklisting

2007-01-31 09:21:43
By Mwanaid Swedi

It has been revealed that the issue of computer security must be understood in a global context and any country in particular that fails to take appropriate measures would become black listed by the international community.

The Director of the Tanzania Development Learning Centre, Charles Senkodo, made the remarks on Monday when closing the E- Security and Cyber Crimes training Workshop organised by Agumba Computers in Dar es Salaam.

He said under the existing circumstances, there was an urgent need for ICT experts to help the users of the technology reinforce e-security in the country.

Senkodo said the challenge underlay the needs of a competitive and well-informed business community which wants to confidently become and prosper in a globalised world.

Thus, all organisations and departments must first gain awareness of e-security threats before they could appreciate the risks they are facing and understand how best to protect their valuable systems and data from the abuse that hackers are seeking, he further observed.

`Preparedness minimizes the impact of an attack while ensuring rapid recovery if ever an attack succeeds in breaking the defences,` he said.

`As we try to prevent such attacks, it is vital that we are able to detect them and be constantly alert of any wrong-doing within our systems and organizations,` he said.

He said that the theft of data was worse than the theft of property, as one would hardly find anything missing if someone illicitly took a copy of confidential documents from a hard disk.

`This training workshop was very important to you as individuals in particular, and as professionals in ICT. I hope that each and every participant of this E- security training workshop will continue working hard to further develop the skills and knowledge shared here over these past two weeks,` observed Senkondo.

Elaborating on ICT, he said, `as developed countries celebrate and cash in on the immense opportunities created by the advent of the technology, the challenge for us in developing countries is to harness its benefits for the majority of our own people.`

Countries like Tanzania could hardly benefit from these new opportunities, unless they invested in the relevant skills, tools and infrastructure.

But once the investments have been established, protective security systems must be put in place.

Moreover the world has hitherto been divided between the rich and the poor and the new knowledge based era adds yet another divide, commonly known as the `digital divide`, between those who have access to participate in the networked society, and those remaining outside those knowledge networks.

`Unfortunately for the developing world, the digital divide threatens a permanent disadvantage in the new internet- based economy, where entire economies are based on digital links,` he said. `

Also as we settle into the 21st century, there is no longer any debate as to the role played by information and communication technologies (ICT) in business, as well as in our daily lives,` he concluded.

Meanwhile, the workshop participants said that one of the commitments of the Public Service Reform Program (PSRP) was to promote the use of ICT in order to improve planning, decision-making and communication.

They added, the critical problem nowadays was the security of information which �is being accessed electronically.�
SOURCE: Guardian