Min. Kruah Holds Discussions with Switzerland On Liberia’s Cyber Security

Posts & Telecommunications Minister Cooper Kruah has traveled to Switzerland to attend a four-day World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) where a wide range issues relating to Information Communications Technology (ICT) will be discussed.

The forum which was held under the theme: “Information and Communication Technologies for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals” started April-8-12, 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum is a global United Nations (UN) multi-stakeholder platform facilitating the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines for advancing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

It is co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD, in close collaboration with all WSIS Action Line co-facilitators and other UN organizations to include, FAO, UNEP, WHO, UN Women, WFP, ILO, ITC, UPU, UNODC, UNICEF and UN Regional Commissions, among others.

This year 10^th annual forum on WSIS is said to be the world’s largest annual gathering of the ‘ICT for development’ community that provides opportunity for information exchange, knowledge creation and sharing of best practices, while identifying emerging trends and fostering partnerships, taking into account the evolving Information and Knowledge Societies.

Our sources also informed this paper that, Minister Kruah discussed with the, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Secretary General, Mr. Houlin Zhao in Switzerland on the possibility of a visit to Liberia along with other Information Communications Technology (ICT) experts to get evolve into Liberia’s e-government programs and Cyber Security issues.

Minister Kruah has been constantly involve in innovative programs in shifting and modernizing the Postal and the ICT sector of the Ministry. The ministry recently drafted a Cyber Security Act that is currently under scrutiny.

Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks. These cyberattacks are usually aimed at accessing, changing, or destroying sensitive information; extorting money from users; or interrupting normal business processes.

ICT experts believe that, implementing effective cybersecurity measures is particularly challenging today because there are more devices than people, and attackers are becoming more innovative.

Meanwhile, this paper has been reliably informed that More than 3,000 ICT experts and implementation actors contributed to and participated in the WSIS Forum to foster partnerships, showcase innovation, exchange best practices and announce new tools and initiatives to use ICTs to advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).