Livingstone, Zambia | November 26-28, 2024
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 be comprised of 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 the African and Arab regions.
Sessions will be presented in English with French translation services available.
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Accra, Ghana, September 2024.
MAD20™ Technologies will support participants in the AfricaCERT community and events participants by providing a discounted price on annual licensing, enabling easier access to MITRE-developed MITRE ATT&CK® DefenderTM training and certification across Africa.
The partnership helps to close the persistent cybersecurity skill gap, teaching cybersecurity professionals how best to use MITRE ATT&CK to gain an advantage over adversaries. MITRE ATT&CK provides a common language for individuals and teams to communicate with each other more effectively and better understand real-world adversary behaviors to defend their networks and critical information systems.
"The partnership will help equip defenders in the region with rigorous training and experience to support the region's cyber readiness," said Jean-Robert Hountomey, co-founder of AfricaCERT.
"We are incredibly excited to offer pathways to access this mission-critical training across the continent through our partnership with AfricaCERT." said Reggie Stevens, CEO of MAD20. About AfricaCERT and MAD20Brief 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_vpiOJmEVRCOv4CrCweDDPgThe 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)
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 at: https://www.first.org/events/symposium/accra2015/.
Meeting Report.
More information about AfricaCERT and FIRST Collaboration.
The Computer Emergency Response Team of Mauritius (CERT-MU), operating under the aegis of the Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation of the Republic of Mauritius has launched a Cyber Threat Information Sharing Platform known as MAUSHIELD. It is an automated platform for sharing cyber threat intelligence in a real-time and in a secure and confidential manner. The aim of MAUSHIELD is to facilitate cyber threat information sharing and develop a better understanding of the different techniques that cybercriminals are using to carry out cyber-attacks. This will help organisations to improve on their defense capability and stay on top of current trends and emerging threats.
MAUSHIELD is open to the following national, regional, and international organisations or sectors:
- Public sector organisations
- Critical sectors
- Private sector organisations
- Small and Medium Enterprises
- Academia
- Non-profit organisations
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.
More information: Press release
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: Media releaseWho are we?
AfricaCERT is the Forum of Computer Security Incident Response Teams and alike organisations covering the Africa Service Regional as defined by AfriNIC. AfricaCERT fosters cooperation and coordination among Incident Response Teams, promote information sharing. AfricaCERT provides the following services:- Capacity building to ensure incident response capability thought awareness creation,education and technical trainings.
- Enabling a community of Security Professionals, Incident Responders, CSIRTs, in Africa that work together in a trusted forum but also. collaborate with others a global level.
- Ensure access to knowledge, tools and standards.
- Opening and maintaining dialogue with other stakeholders in the ecosystem which work affect Incident Response Community especially policy makers.
African Computer Security Incident Response Teams are responding to COVID-19 related cyber threats in Member States and working together to protect African citizens and businesses. During these difficult times, the computer emergency response teams in Africa continuously exchange cybersecurity related information, providing summaries and recommendations on how to face the cyber threats related to the outbreak. Read more…