Cyber security critical for Zim

EDITOR — While the world is criticising the formation of a new Cyber Security, Threat Detection and Mitigation ministry in Zimbabwe on October 14, 2017, the British officially confirmed that there was a cyber attack on June 23, 2017.

Media reports indicated the British parliament was a target of a major cyber attack which compromised all parliamentary e-mail accounts, including those of a British cabinet minister, which they are now blaming on the Iranian government as the perpetrator.

Whitehall officials said Iran was behind a “sustained” cyber attack on June 23 with hackers making repeated attempts to guess passwords of 9 000 accounts.

Up to 30 accounts are thought to have been compromised.

Security sources believe the attackers were Iranian, although none of the information appears to have been used and the motive remains unclear. This is the first time that the West has accused Iran of any cyber attack and if it’s true then this proves that Iran now has cyber power capabilities.

This must be a wake up call for those people claiming cyber security is only about social media. With the e-mail now being the major method of business communication, this is the last nail in the coffin for our postal system as emails have become the target of hackers.

It’s a known fact that email accounts often contain a lot of personal information, making them a valuable target for hackers and cyber criminals. Moving forward, all prominent individuals will be a target of hackers.

The attack on the British parliament should be a lesson to Zimbabwe considering that most parliamentarians use either Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo! That means all their emails are available on an

American server and can easily be retrieved and be manipulated.

The first role of the Cyber Security ministry must be to introduce a robust and secure email system that detects local and international intrusion into our Government official e-mails, and eventually filter down to the private sector.

Zimbabweans need to be educated that Cyber Security is an important ministry to prevent attacks such as one the British parliament experienced.