The government has extended an invitation to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to establish a regional centre for cyber security in the country.

The centre would coordinate efforts to combat cyber crimes in the continent.

The invite was extended by the Minister for Defence, James Kabarebe, at the closing of a three-day ITU cyber security conference for the African Region in Kigali, yesterday.

The forum went beyond deliberations to cyber security alert drills, where the organisers replicated scenarios of incidents of cyber crime and tasked the participants to work toward combating the vice.

The forum also served as a culmination of the just concluded two-week cyber security campaign by a partnership of government agencies, including Rwanda National Police, Rwanda Development Board, among others.

Kabarebe said in the face of the rising incidences of cyber crime, cooperation among nations was indispensable.

He noted that some of the cooperation mechanisms already exist, such as the Northern Corridor Integration Projects, where Rwanda had taken a steering role in matters concerning ICT.

Rwanda has made efforts to protect its cyberspace and has since established a National Computer Security Incident Response Centre to monitor cyber security situation and assess risks, Minister Kabarebe said.

The Defence minister said the cyber security threats have become central to security in recent years as governments, businesses and individuals were heavily relying on the internet and criminals making it a common target.

"Experience has taught us that there cannot be progress without security,” Kabarebe said, calling for the organisation of regular forums and drills to keep ICT experts abreast of the latest advancements in cyber security.

Speaking on the sidelines of the forum, Marco Obiso, the coordinator of cyber security at ITU, said they were excited with the offer and would initiate the process in the coming days.

He said it was a good sign for countries such as Rwanda to understand the threats posed by cyber crime and take initiative considered that ICT was among the pillars to drive the economy in the future.

Jean Philbert Nsengimana, the minister for youth and ICT, said as much as cyber crime and cyber security was a threat, there were some entrepreneurial and job opportunities in combating the vice.

"The fight against cyber crime can contribute to the development of computer science technologies that had never been imagined before that would benefit the entire ICT ecosystems in terms of job creation and entrepreneurship,” Nsengimana said.

He called on people involved in ICT to pursue the opportunities in an effort to bridge the existing gap.

Nsengimana added that the security aspect also required inter agency cooperation and cross border cooperation.

The forum brought together over 150 participants from 18 African countries.

Rwanda National Police has, a partnership with Interpol, a mandate to fight the vice and perpetrators of cyber crimes can face prosecution.

The Cabinet last month approved a national cyber security policy which aims at protecting the national infrastructure from cyber-attacks as well as safeguarding individual and organisation’s personal data and information.

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