when elephants fight, the grass gets trampled
TRANSCRIPT
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
When elephants fight, the grass gets trampledby Aireni Omerri CISA CISSP MSc
Founder, ISfA
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
Thus far
• Royal Holloway 2001-2002, CISSP 2002
• Worked on 3 continents; Africa, America & Europe
•
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
Agenda
•The build up•The fight•The aftermath
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
The aid myth contd
•US $1 trillion in the last 50 years
•the key indicators say Africa is worse off
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
Why aid hasn’t worked
•aid donors don’t listen to aid recipients
•questionable delivery practises
•aid is a multi-billion dollar industry
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
RICTSP
•Funded by the 9th EDF•Beneficiaries; member countries of COMESA, EAC, IGAD and IOC
•Ran from 2006-2009
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
Remit
•develop a national security strategy for the government agency responsible for promoting the advancement and development of ICT
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
Protagonists
•Elephant 1 - govt. agency•Elephant 2 - IGAD•Elephant 3 - Danish organisation
•Grass - Short Term Expert (STE)
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
Sticking point
•the government agency submitted a formal request to IGAD to amend the original deliverables
• IGAD took 5 weeks to turn the request down
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
Amended deliverables
•the government agency had drawn up its own risk assessment guidelines
•the government agency opted to have a roundtable
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
Amended deliverables II
•discussion instead of a workshop
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
Realisation
•the requirements of the government agency, the aid recipient, were secondary to those of IGAD and the Danish organisation
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
Communication failure
•STE raised issues and concerns with the hierarchy of IGAD and the Danish organisation
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
Apathy
•STE raised the issues and concerns with IGAD’s implementation of the RICTSP with COMESA, DfID, the EU and TI (Denmark)
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
The EU’s perspective
•Documents obtained under the EU’s FOI equivalent indicated all was well with the RICTSP implementation
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
After the fight
•the trampled grass is revived by a tropical downpour and energised by the potency of the African sun
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
The aftermath
•
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
ISfA tagline
•Securing the continent
•Africa’s security assured
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
Behind the logo
•closed group on LinkedIn - 103 members; 35 in Africa
•Management team made up of 4 ISG Alumni; 2 in Nigeria, 2 in the UK
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
Team Cymru
•dedicated to making the Internet more secure
•they research the ‘who’ and ‘why’ of malicious internet activity
•www.team-cymru.org
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
African bot distribution
•Nov 2009 - countries with highest number of infected computers; Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Morocco
•Feb 2010 - Egypt’s numbers increased by 20%
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
ISfA roadmap
•register as a not-for-profit•website • initiatives - infosec awareness, scholarship
•raising profile
ISG RHUL Alumni Conference, 7 July 2010
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago
The second-best time is now