Benin is ranked 56th out of 194 countries in the latest Global Cybersecurity Index report, published on 29 June 2021 by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). A look back at the last three editions of this composite index shows that the country climbed 92 places between 2017 and 2020. This is the result of the reforms and actions undertaken under the leadership of President Patrice Talon to turn Benin into a safe destination in terms of cybersecurity.
Benin is ranked 56th out of 194 countries in the latest Global Cybersecurity Index report, published on 29 June 2021 by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). A look back at the last three editions of this composite index shows that the country climbed 92 places between 2017 and 2020. This is the result of the reforms and actions undertaken under the leadership of President Patrice Talon to turn Benin into a safe destination in terms of cybersecurity.
149th in 2017, 80th in 2018, then 56th in 2020: Benin is setting an example in the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI). Produced and published by the ITU, this composite index is used to analyse States' commitment to cybersecurity and to raising their populations' awareness of it. In addition to its progress in the international ranking, Benin stands out at continental level, moving from 33rd place in 2017 to 8th place in 2018, then 6th out of the 44 African countries assessed in 2020. Across the five assessment pillars, namely legal measures, technical measures, organisational measures, capacity-building measures and cooperation, the scores awarded to Benin in the latest GCI bear witness to the quality of public action. After analysing the organisational framework put in place by the Beninese authorities, the ITU gave the country a score of 19.48/20, followed by 17.42/20 for legal measures and 15.63/20 for cooperation measures. The reality on the ground bears out this special distinction.
The pillars of embedding cybersecurity in Benin
Until 2016, Beninese cyberspace was threatened by all kinds of computer and cyber offences. Online fraudsters, commonly known as “guy man”, and many other cybercriminals could engage in illicit practices and exploit the scattered laws governing the sector, receiving inappropriate sentences or even escaping justice altogether.
In April 2018, a new page opened in Benin's legislative landscape with the promulgation by President Patrice Talon of Law No. 2017-20 on the Digital Code in the Republic of Benin, a text adopted a few months earlier by the National Assembly. The Code, which brings together all existing texts on the digital economy, devotes an entire book to cybercrime and cybersecurity (Book Six). This legislative framework gives the courts the means to classify precisely and punish all forms of computer and cyber offences. At the same time, the Republican Police stepped up its field operations and made more and more arrests of suspected cybercriminals, even prompting a kind of exodus of the notorious “guy men”. Meanwhile, the National Information Systems Security Agency (ANSSI), created by the Digital Code, was set up to ensure that the computer systems of the administration, businesses and other organisations of vital importance are protected. Small wonder, then, that Benin leapt 69 places in the 2018 Global Cybersecurity Index.
The Government did not rest on its laurels after the 2018 success. True to the vision of the Head of State, who aims to turn Benin into a digital services platform for West Africa, the executive launched a new undertaking: the National Digital Security Strategy. Drawn up in line with international standards under the supervision of the Ministry of Digital Affairs and Digitalisation, the document was approved by the Council of Ministers on 6 May 2020.
The National Digital Security Strategy lays the foundations for a secure and attractive cyberspace for a thriving digital economy. It provides for 47 actions over a three-year period to protect critical information systems and infrastructure, strengthen the legal framework for combating cybercrime, develop digital security skills and culture, promote digital trust and strengthen cooperation. The first projects implemented under this strategy are already bearing fruit: admission of the government computer security incident response team (bjCSIRT) to the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST); capacity building for various target groups, including judges; cybersecurity awareness-raising; alerts and publication of suspicious telephone numbers by ANSSI; assessment of national cybersecurity maturity and capacity (CMM) by World Bank experts; observer member status of the Budapest Convention… the list is long. Rightly, this national momentum has been recognised by the ITU, which ranks Benin 56th out of 194 countries in the latest Global Cybersecurity Index report. The icing on the cake: the report cites Benin among the countries of the South that have shown strong commitment to cybersecurity, alongside Rwanda, Bangladesh and Tanzania.
Alongside this well-deserved rise from 149th to 56th place worldwide and from 33rd to 6th place in Africa in less than one five-year term, several ongoing projects testify to the Beninese State's determination to continue its work of promoting cybersecurity. From the creation of a cyber range to develop practical cybersecurity training to the drafting of the regulatory part of the Digital Code, along with the deployment of a platform providing access to all awareness-raising content and the finalisation of the State Information Systems Security Policy (PSSIE), the ongoing projects augur well for the future.