Assessment of Cyber-Security Policies in East and West Africa

Abstract

The growth of the internet has propelled various innovations and socio-economic developments in Africa. However, this growth has also brought the cybercrime issue to light. Once considered a trivial matter in Africa, cybercrime has now been identified as a major barrier to development in Africa. With many African nations now aware of the issue, they have taken legislative and regulatory steps to counter the rising trend of cyber-attacks. This Research proposes the Cybersecurity Liability Index (CLI), based on additive utility function. This model is used to assess the incorporation of liability and enforcement of cyber-crime laws. A score of 0.7 was set as the threshold to be considered to have fulfilled the requirement and none of the countries considered met this requirement. Key findings suggest that all countries considered did not fully incorporate liability and enforcement within their policies and that is an issue with deterring cybercrime in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords: Liability, Enforcement, Internet, Policy, Cyber-security, Cyber-crime, Incentive, Africa