Kenya to fast track enactment of law to protect country from cyber attacks

Kenya is fast-tracking the enactment of a law that will protect the country from cyber attacks, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru told journalists in Nairobi that the Cabinet has already approved and forwarded to Parliament for debate the Computer and Cyber Crimes Bill that seeks to increase penalties for cybercrime and related corporate espionage.

"Once enacted, the new law will protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer systems, programs and data; prevent the unlawful use of computer systems; facilitate the investigation and prosecution of cybercrimes; and facilitate international co-operation against cybercrime," Mucheru said during the Thought Leadership Forum on Cybersecurity.

The day long high-level leadership event will deliberate on ways to enhance cyber security for organizations in the financial services sector.

The Bill draws heavily from best practices elsewhere including the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime that was passed by the Council of Europe in 2001.

The forum comes in the wake of last week's unprecedented global cyber attack that affected hundreds of thousands of computers.

Mucheru said that Kenya has so far reported one case of cyber attack but the institution affected has since restored their computer systems.

He noted the government is alert and has been keenly following new developments with a view to ensuring that it does not spread to Kenya's other cyberspace users.

"We have heightened our cyber monitoring and surveillance mechanisms to prevent and eliminate any remote possibility of further attacks," he added.

"I therefore assure the public that government computer systems and networks and the information they hold is secure," he added. Endit