The 5th Transform Africa Summit, whose overarching theme this year was ‘Boosting Africa’s Digital Economy’, came to a close on Friday after running for four days at the Kigali Convention Centre. The last day of the summit featured an array of top brains from across the technological, artificial intelligence, and entrepreneurship worlds,sharing experiences on how to keep abreast of the ever-changing technological landscape. Among those top brains was Eugene Kaspersky, founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, who led a discussion sessionfrom 10:30 to 12:00 on ‘Ensuring Cybersecurity in a Digital Economy’,co-organized by RISA and Kaspersky Lab. Cybersecurity is a global issue as we advance our digital economies. And national defense and public security are major cybersecurity issues for African countries, which are rapidly growing with more online services and internet access. While taking delegates through the definitions of cybersecurity and the state of being protected against cybercriminals and unauthorized use of electronic data, Mr. Kaspersky brought up the need for investing in education in all things cyber to be able to maintain healthy levels of cybersecurity. “Governments must ensure that all information systems are well protected against any and every cyberthreat. Cybersecurity is a critical element of any national security system, and it must be maintained with the best available technology,” said Eugene Kaspersky. According to Kaspersky, Africa has good opportunities to build better ‘immune’ cyber systems because it can use the latest designs instead of working with already established systems that need to be upgraded. He went on: “African countries can learn from what went wrong with other cyber systems around the world and build stronger – immune – cyber systems with new architecture designed from the ground up with safe microkernels and a security layer isolating all of its modules to restrict any unusual behavior and providing a powerful defense mechanism.” After Kaspersky explained what needs to be done to nurture successful digital economies and to provide a safe and secure environment to build and grow trust in digital commerce and financial services, a panel discussion was held. Moderated by Innocent B Muhizi, CEO, RISA, the panel was made up of: Eugene Kaspersky himself; Amir Kanaan, Managing Director, ME & Turkey & Africa, Kaspersky Lab; Hon. Claude Isaac DE, Minister of Communications, Digital Economy and Post, Côte d’Ivoire; Alexander Ntoko, Chief, Operations and Planning Department, TSB, ITU; and Sandra Sargent from the World Bank. The previous day, Eugene Kaspersky met with the President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, to discuss further cooperation with the Rwandan government and ways to protect the country from cyberthreats. They also discussed plans for a new local office and to expand operations to other neighboring countries. Upon arrival prior to the summit, the CEO visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial to pay his respects to the victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. During the visit to the memorial – where the remains of over 250,000 victims are laid to rest – Kaspersky said that he cannot help but draw comparisons between the genocide against the Tutsi and the Holocaust that was perpetrated against the Jews. After the memorial visit, Kaspersky attended and addressed delegates at the National Security Symposium at the Rwanda Defence Force Command. New office in Kigali During the summit, Kaspersky also announced that his company will be opening an office in the Rwandan capital to boost its presence in East Africa. Kaspersky Lab aims to better serve the needs of its growing numbers of partners and customers across the region, and by opening the new officeit wants to step up its efforts in continuing to grow its commercial and enterprise businesses with a solid focus on critical verticals such as ‘industrial cybersecurity’.
