Botswana should expedite formulation of Cyber

I am delighted to join you during this inaugural session of Botswana’s National Cyber week. I would like to start by thanking my friend, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Thulagano Segokgo, for inviting the European Union to deliver this keynote address.

I also take this opportunity to congratulate Botswana for, once again, joining Europe, and many other countries, in celebrating the Cyber Security Awareness Month, which is an internationally recognised campaign held each October. The theme chosen to commemorate the Cyber Week could not be more relevant: Building cyber resilience in the times of uncertainty: lessons learnt from the

Covid- 19 pandemic.

The COVID- 19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges in both the short and the long term, globally and across all sectors. Equally, digital technologies have proven key to mitigate the negative impact of the crisis in our daily lives, for example by allowing remote meetings, workshops, remote schooling, etc.

The COVID- 19 pandemic is pushing more and more citizens to conduct their daily lives and work online. Today there are few businesses and organisations that do not in some way rely on the internet and the smooth functioning of information systems to operate efficiently. Both the European Union and the Government of Botswana, recognise the digital sector as one of the fastest evolving economic and social areas worldwide, creating opportunities for sustainable development and inclusive growth.

While the digital sector has a great potential to improve citizens’ lives in Botswana and around the globe, it is also important to realise that there are risks associated to the digital transformation that we need to prevent and fight. In a world with over 50 billion devices connected to the internet, cyber- attacks can become a gold mine for bad actors.

I understand from the organisers of this event that there has been a rise in malicious attacks during this pandemic. This is a growing phenomenon that can disrupt not only businesses and our personal systems but also the supply of essential services that we take for granted, such as water or electricity, or even an operation theatre at a hospital. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to protect the internet from cybersecurity incidents, malicious activities and misuse.

No nation can win the battle alone when dealing with criminals who attack from anywhere, anytime. We can succeed against cybercriminals only by adopting collaborative approaches, such as the one between Botswana and the European Union.

The European Union and Botswana have a strong partnership in all areas, and we share values of democracy, development and human rights. This is why the EU chose your country as one of the three original partners in our Cyber Resilience for Development ( Cyber4Dev) programme.

The Cyber4Dev project has been running since 2019 in Botswana and has delivered a broad range of support and capacity- building services. Following the approval of the robust National Cybersecurity Strategy about a year ago – congratulations for this important milestone! – Cyber4Dev works closely with the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security, engaging on a legislative review, focused on the development of a cybersecurity law and a Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence.

Through Cyber4Dev, the EU has also assisted our hosts today, the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority ( BOCRA), in relation to the establishment and training of the country’s first

Computer Security Incident Response Team ( CSIRT) for the communications sector. If the need arises, we remain open to assisting CSIRT to evolve into a regional CSIRT that serves the member states of SADC.

In addition, we supported this and last year’s Cyber Smart Challenge Competition, where young people in Botswana are creating informational videos to combat online threats and share practical tips on how to be safe online.

Honorable Minister, we acknowledge the visionary aspirations of His Excellency the President to digitize the economy, as expressed for example in the Botswana Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan adopted last year. We are following carefully the SmartBots project and its ambition to improve digital infrastructure and e- government services. Digitalisation is for sure going to be an area of cooperation between the EU and Botswana in the years to come.

At the same time we need to promote cybersecurity and build the necessary