Egypt Setups A Computer Emergency Response Team To Combat Cybercrimes
The internet has grown so rampant and widespread across the globe. It has many benefits such as enabling people to conduct business, surveys, education and the most popular one, connecting with families and friends via social media. African nations have also capitalized on the benefits of the internet and are not being left behind, no, not by a long shot. They are also actively involved in the use of the internet.
There is always two sides to a coin, the one which would like to look at, and the one which you wouldn’t want to look at if the sides determine a favorable and unfavorable terms. The internet is no exception. There are numerous fraudulent and morally-corruptive materials that are using the internet as a leeway to get access to the general public since the conventional means have already been blocked. Different countries have put different strategies to block such contents with China being one of the most guarded countries in terms of internet content.
Egypt on the other hand, has followed suit and on the 8th December 2013 inaugurate the Egyptian Computer Emergency Response Team (EG-CERT) which will be an arm of the already established National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) at Cairo’s Smart Village. According to the Egypt’s ICT minister said during the inauguration that piracy and cybercrime have gone to an all time high. Sensitive data are getting accessed by the wrong kind of people and are being used for fraudulent and illegal purposes, and the government of Egypt is now setting out to catch and prosecute the perpetrators. This move is also seen as a deliberate move to discourage any would be cyber crime offenders.
In addition to this, the government of Egypt is also taking deliberate steps to establishing a law for the ICT intellectual property rights, e-terrorism law in addition to the cyber security. Also to address the alarming allegation that some foreign government is spying and tapping on phone and online activities of state officials and bodies of countries around the world, the Egyptian government has also setup protection against unauthorized spying and tapping. EG-CERT is part on the international community of the Computer Emergency Response Centers and is credited for starting the Islamic CERT community.