Cameroon to develop national strategy to fight cyber criminality

The National Agency of Information Technology and Communication (ANTIC) organised, in the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé, a conference on the protection of information infrastructure, with the assistance of Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO).

The aim of this conference, we learn, is to put in place, ultimately, a national strategy to fight cyber criminality in the country. “We cannot build a digital economy without cyber security in Cameroon", emphasises the secretary general of CTO, Shola Taylor. Indeed, Cameroon is actually engaged in a process of developing the digital economy. Simultaneously, ANTIC remarks, we are witnessing a meteoric rise in cyber criminality in the country.

This phenomenon is demonstrated by practices such as “Skimming”, which consists in “hacking magnetic cards with the help of special devices inserted into bank ATMs"; Sim Box fraud, which allows telephone calls from abroad to be diverted; to say nothing of the use of more than 80% pirated computer software in the country.