The Government of the Republic of Benin, the ECOWAS Commission through the OCWAR-C project, and Expertise France held an awareness workshop on cybersecurity and digital hygiene on Tuesday 12 October 2021.
The Government of the Republic of Benin, the ECOWAS Commission through the OCWAR-C project, and Expertise France held an awareness workshop on cybersecurity and digital hygiene on Tuesday 12 October 2021. It was officially opened by Mr Koudouss LANIGNAN, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Minister of Digital Affairs and Digitalisation, representing the Minister.
This joint initiative to raise awareness among Beninese citizens, decision-makers and authorities comes at a particular time, marked by Benin's undeniable progress in cybersecurity and the fight against cybercrime. According to Ms Rabiyatou BAH, Coordinator of the “Organised Crime: West African Response on Cybersecurity and Fight against Cybercrime” project (OCWAR-C), despite the Beninese Government's many efforts to clean up its cyberspace through the establishment of specialised bodies such as the National Information Systems Security Agency (ANSSI), the Government computer security incident response team in Benin (bjCSIRT) and the Central Office for the Repression of Cybercrime (OCRC), cybercrime remains a real threat. The OCWAR-C project was launched in February 2019 and aims to strengthen cybersecurity and the fight against cybercrime in the member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Mauritania.
According to Ruben AGUILERA, Chargé d'Affaires at the Delegation of the European Union to Benin, this workshop helps to reduce the exposure of Beninese decision-makers and authorities to the dangers of cyberspace. “It is important to make the various stakeholders aware of the practices to adopt in order to secure Beninese cyberspace,” he said.
Mr Koudouss LANIGNAN, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Minister of Digital Affairs and Digitalisation, speaking on behalf of the Minister Aurelie ADAM SOULE ZOUMAROU, reaffirmed the commitment of the Government, whose reforms have given Benin one of the mechanisms for combating cybercrime in the sub-region.
ANSSI Benin makes two easy-to-follow collections of good practice available to the general public:
- Basic hygiene rules for improved personal digital security => https://bit.ly/3asEFKe
- Teleworker's guide => https://bit.ly/3lwUh5K