Building a Cyber Fortress in Africa: Uganda's cyber security capacities and challenges

Cyber security, “a body of technologies, processes, and practices designed to protect networks, devices, programs, and data from attack, damage, or unauthorized access”, is very important for any country embracing digitization. The recently announced Global National Cyber Security Index by Estonia’s E-Governance Academy Foundation Company, ranked Uganda first in Africa and 40th in the world in cyber security, with an index of 49.35. Since the dawn of Information and Communication Technology, numerous crimes related to internet space have been registered in Uganda. For the most part, cybercrime in Uganda has involved the hacking of people’s email accounts and various website scams that target Ugandans and citizens of other countries. The major challenge for Uganda will be in its forward strides in building a cyber fortress that foremost defends against looming threats and protecting the country without having a deleterious effect on those it seeks to protect.