1

Opening Statement for the Minister for Communication, Science

and Technology Hon. Prof. Makame Mbarawa (MP) at the launch
of the 4
th
I nternational Commission on Science and Technology for
Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS), workshop
on 20th October 2013 at COSTECH Conference Hall.

1. Salutation:

Dr. Nader Shamsheer, Supervisor of the Financial Sector - ISESCO
Dr. Imtinan Elahi Qureshi, Executive Director COMSATS
Dr. Hassan Mshinda, Director General of COSTECH,
Mr. Tahir Naeem Coordinator - INIT
Ambassadors,
Representative of International Organizations,
Member of Academia and R&D Institutions,
Representatives of the Media,
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Good morning.

2. Appreciation

It is honor for me to have been invited by the organizers to officiate this
important milestone, the 4
th
Commission on Science and Technology for
Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS), International Workshop on
Internet Security: Enhancing Information Exchange Safeguards.

My presence here signifies my ambition and the Ministry of
Communication, Science and Technologys commitment to ensure
science, technology and innovation becomes a crosscutting sector of the
economy.

As a Minister for Communication, Science and Technology, I have been
a humble observer and participant in many development initiatives. In
April 2012, I got an opportunity to attend the 2
nd
Commission meeting
of the COMSATS conference which was held in Islamabad, Pakistan
2

and to tell the truth, I am intrigued by the objectives of establishing the
COMSATS and I am glad that this years workshop with theme, Internet
Security: Enhancing Information Exchange Safeguards is being held in
Tanzania.

On behalf of the Ministry of Communication, Science and Technology
and Tanzania as a whole, I would like to take this opportunity to thank
the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable
Development in the South (COMSATS), the Islamic Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), the Inter Islamic
Network on Information Technology (INIT), the COMSATS Institute of
Information Technology (CIIT) and the Tanzania Commission for
Science and Technology (COSTECH), for seeing the importance of
organizing this training workshop.

3. About the COMSATS

Ladies and gentlemen, as some of you know, COMSATS is an
intergovernmental organization with its Permanent Secretariat based in
Islamabad, Pakistan. Established in 1994, the organization is comprised
21 Member States, strives to promote South-South cooperation in the
fields of Science and Technology that are most relevant to socio-
economic development.

Since 2011 the COMSATS Member States have been organizing a series
of training workshops. I have been told that first three events of this
series were held in Syria (2011), Jordan (2012) and Tunisia (2013)
respectively, and this year, it is being held in Tanzania. Again, I am
thankful to the COSTECH Management for agreeing to host this
important event.

I am also informed that the workshop aims to provide a forum to the
young scientists/researchers from the developing countries to learn about
the latest advancements in the field of Internet security; promote the use
of state-of-the-art technologies for protection of network and network-
3

accessible resources from different types of malicious attacks; and
identify effective Internet/information security solutions for general
public, governmental organizations and commercial ventures through
rigorous risk-analyses and security management approaches.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have been informed that this workshop brings
together people from Asia and Africa to share experience and best
practices on the Internet Security and Cyber Crimes. When I received
the invitation, I was eager to learn about the key topics of the workshop,
and I was informed that during the course of action, topics such as:

Network Security: Modern Attacks, Evasion Techniques and Defenses,
Malicious Code Analysis and Detection,
Information Security Risk Assessment/Management and many others will be
the centre of the discussion.

As we all know, internet security landscapes keeps changing with
threats, actors, technologies and methods used as well as attacking
paradigm constantly shift. I believe the participation of young
researchers, practitioners, academicians, system administrators, system
programmers, and students from various organizations in Tanzania will
gives hope and greatly contribute to the war against cyber crimes in the
country.

Ladies and gentlemen, like many other countries around the globe,
Tanzania has embraced Information and Communication Technologies
(ICT) as a key enabler for social and economic development in the
country. Currently, ICT has become pervasive in all hosts of the daily
activities in Tanzania. Typical examples include the use of ICT in
finances, healthcare, education, defense, mobility, and energy, just to
mention a few. However, much as ICTs present developmental
opportunities, they also present various challenges that call for our
attention. The challenges range from simple loss of data to the
compromise of essential information and resources in the government
and business organizations. Such a situation may cause serious
4

consequences to the government, businesses, as well as individuals in
the country.

4. Internet security situation in the world

Ladies and gentlemen, According to a report from the Center for
Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), worldwide, more than US
$445 billion gets lost annually with the damage for businesses nearly
double than for individuals, through series of cyber crime, electronic
theft, and online piracy, including infringing intellectual property rights
with more than 800 million data records getting hacked into or stolen.
The 2014 cyber security index from IBM Security Services shows that
23.1 per cent of cyber security incidents are targeted at finance and
insurance industry.

It has been predicted that, traditional crimes we see today will move to
cybercrime and the need for us to get prepared for them is highly
needed. This is due to the rapidly increasing of the use of technology.
We learned about recently horrifying new research from Liverpool
University regarding Human malware with ability to kill using Wi-Fi
technology.

5. ICT infrastructure in Tanzania

In realizing the importance of ICT sector in contributing to sustainable
development, the government of Tanzania has laid down various
infrastructure to enable the end users enjoy the ICT facilities. These
facilities include:

- Fixed Line Services whereby two operators are licensed to
provide basic telecommunication services, that is, Tanzania
Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL) the incumbent
national operator and Zanzibar Telecom Limited (ZANTEL).
- Land Mobile Cellular Services whereby the the market structure
is dominated by four (4) mobile operators namely Vodacom (T)
5

Limited, Airtel (T) Ltd, Tigo, Zantel and Smart. The total
subscriber base is just over 26 million. as of April 2005.
- 11 Public Data Communication Network operators with the
right to install their own international gateway for routing the
international traffic. The provision of Data communication services
is fully competitive.
- Internet Service Provision (ISP) which is under full competition
mode of licensing. Currently, there are 23 Internet service
providers operating mainly in Dar es Salaam and others in major
cities and towns countrywide. To improve service provision the
National Internet Exchange Point (NIXP) has been installed.
Currently there are 4 ISPs connected.
- We have the National ICT Broadband Backbone which helps to
fulfill the increasing demands of information services, strengthen
competitive abilities of domestic data and voice operators as well
as bridging the digital divide.
With all those ICT facilities in mind, Tanzania as a country has a
huge potential to increase its competitiveness by modernizing
services and providing them online. We cannot afford to lose
confidence of our societies in opportunities that the internet can
provide. For this reason, creating a secure digital environment is
mandatory in order to maintain the current pace of development.

6. Internet security situation in Tanzania

Ladies and gentlemen, Internet Security and Cyber Crimes are the
global issues that the world has to deal with in todays life. While we are
here trying to enlighten each other on how to reduce a number of crimes,
on the other side of the room, there are a growing number of faceless
criminals hiding behind their computer screens causing more damage
and threats than the physical gun-toting bandits.

I would like to borrow the words from the Deputy Minister of Home
Affairs, Mr Pereira Silima (MP) who believes that, cyber criminals are
technology savvy individuals who are always miles ahead in digital
6

prowess compared to the people who try to track or pursue them; they
can transcend territorial borders, hacking computers and stealing data
thousands of miles away while remaining anonymous. But, we cannot
sit down and watch the cyber criminals rule the world. We must join
hand with developed countries such as the U.S.A, Canada, China,
Finland, South Africa, Nigeria, etc to fight war against these crimes, and
Tanzania can never be left behind on this initiative.

Tanzania is reported to have so far lost nearly 10 billion shilling
(equivalent to USD $ 6 million) through cyber related fraud crimes,
involving mostly card skimming and ATM thefts. But we are not resting.
As of now, there are more than 300 cyber crime cases being
investigated, some of which are about to be benched in courts of law.
This is according to the records from the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Ladies and gentlemen, One would wonder about a large number of
cases that I have mentioned earlier, but I would like to remind you that
lack of technical know-how, lack of laws and legislations specific to
cyber crime, coupled with inefficiency digital literacy among the public
at large has made efforts to curb online piracy suffer setbacks. It is in
this due cause, I am confident that this workshop comes at the right
moment as October is the cyber crime awareness campaign month.

Currently, according to the TCRA, 2012 report, Tanzania has about
26,978,436 million mobile phone subscribers. This situation explains
continuing access to ICTs, but also extends the cybercrime challenge in
the country. Tanzania, being the leading country as far as electronic
money transfer through mobile phone (e.g. M-Pesa, Tigo Pesa, Airtel
money, Eazy Money) is concerned, is a very vulnerable to cyber-crime
and fraud. Mobile money transfer and others provide opportunities for
cybercrime.




7

7. Various measures taken by the government of Tanzania

Ladies and gentlemen, the experience shows that the victims of such
electronic thefts or online crimes do not know where to report or seek
help and many tend to suffer in silence.

Recognizing the impact of the crimes, the government of Tanzania has
responded by establishing the Cyber Crime Unit in the Police Force; by
development of cyber law (Electronic and Postal Communications Act
(EPOCA), No. 3 2010), and establishment of computer emergency
response team (CERT) which comprises a wide range of experts from
the Government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies; Academia,
Banks, Telecom Service Providers, Police, Military, and Media.

The government has taken further efforts to strengthen its capability to
respond to cyber incidences including the establishment of joint
initiative within East Africa under the umbrella of East Africa
Communications Organizations (EACO); engaging in an administrative
agreement with International Telecommunication Union and
International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats
(ITU/IMPACT) for Technical Assistance; Collaborate with African
Network Operators' Group (AfNOG) and African Network Information
Centre(/AfriNIC) initiative; Procurement of equipment for National
CERT operations; and training workshop for the Steering Committee.

Other efforts are the initiation of the numbers and addresses database;
registration of SIM card; cooperate with regional and international
entities involved with management of Cyber Security incidents; and
users and licensees obligations.

Ladies and gentlemen, the current efforts are still inadequate. This is
because most of them are in their nascent stages. Further initiatives are
therefore planned to take place. These include building the confidence of
and on the national sectoral CERT, enforcement of cyber safety
regulations, capacity building and knowledge transfer, introducing three
8

new cyber laws currently in a pipeline and implementation of cyber
security awareness programs in the country.

8. Conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen, before I wind up this speech may I once again
convey my sincere appreciation to The Commission on Science and
Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS), the
Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), the
Inter Islamic Network on Information Technology (INIT), the
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) and also the
Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) for
seeing the importance of organizing this training workshop.

As I have identified issues facing Internet Security industry in Tanzania,
it is my hope that this training workshop will give positive results; the
participants will get more exposure on the content and hopefully,
integrate the service to more government ministries, departments, and
agencies; academia, banks, telecom service providers, police, military,
and the media.

Ladies and gentlemen, with these few remarks, I wish you fruitful
training, and I therefore, declare the 2014 COMSCATS training
workshop launched.

I thank you all for listening.