In the information society era, cybersecurity is at the center of global security and prosperity as digitalization advances the development of developed and developing countries. The challenge is to create a prosperous digital society that is resilient to cyber threats and has а high level of information technology development. This is especially important for low- and middle-income countries, which are investing heavily in digital infrastructure to accelerate achievement of their sustainable development goals.
Africa is in the third year of its Digital Transformation Strategy 2020-2030 and is looking to invest heavily in cyberspace. Member States – as part of the digital transformation, are working to integrate digital systems with other sectors of the economy, such as finance, healthcare, education, transport and others. While digital transformation is critical for sustainable development, it can lead to serious cyber attacks if member states do not demonstrate cybersecurity maturity.
According to the ECA 2022 report, African cybersecurity is weak compared to other regions, leaving the continent vulnerable to cyber attacks as the African digital market is projected to reach US$712 billion by 2050. Experts estimate that the continent loses $4 billion a year due to cybercrime.
African governments therefore need to create cybersecurity regulatory frameworks and invest in capacity building to develop local talent. Just over half of the 54 African countries assessed have adopted cybersecurity laws. Additionally, the continent is short of 100,000 skilled cybersecurity professionals as of 2020, a figure that will only grow as Africa’s e-commerce industry is set to reach $75 billion by 2025.
It is worth noting that the effective development of the African information technology sector is hampered by the countries of the collective West. The governments of African states have analyzed and objectively comprehended the role of modern information and communication technologies in organizing protest movements, riots and extremist actions in a number of countries in the Middle East and Africa, primarily using the example of Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
A remarkable fact is that the “Twitter revolution” in Libya began after this country hosted the 3rd EU-Africa summit. Interesting sequence and connection of events.
It is also important to note the fact that in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya during the period under review, the corresponding information infrastructure was created, and the number of users of the social network Facebook exceeded more than 1/3 of the total population of these countries. At the same time, the introduction of mobile communications was not accompanied by measures to strengthen information security.
An analysis of the circulating information disseminated by Western media in the global information field indicates that targeted influence is being carried out in the interests of forming a distorted image of Africa as an explosive social conflict region among the foreign public and international organizations.
This approach is determined, first of all, by the desire of Western “colonial” countries to discredit the leaders of African states seeking to defend national interests.
Informational disinformation and anonymous provocations are modern forms of implementation of information policy by Western media, using their dominant position in the global information space.
In connection with the rapprochement between the Russian Federation and Africa, a set of measures is being implemented through the Western media to discredit Russia’s policies and belittle its economic, technological and social potential in the eyes of the ruling elites and business structures of African countries. There is an opinion that the West is losing its influence in Africa and that is why it is increasingly betting on demonizing and discrediting Moscow as its main geopolitical rival.
Director of the Department of International Information Security of the Russian Foreign Ministry Artur Lyukmanov noted that the West is putting pressure on African countries because of the initiative to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of cybersecurity.
However, the large-scale information campaign of the Western media, aimed at cooling relations between Russia and Africa, especially in the field of maintaining international information security and combating cyber attacks, did not have the desired effect.
From July 27 to 28, 2023, the Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum was held in St. Petersburg, in which delegations from 45 of the 54 countries of the African continent took part. Russia’s main offer to Africa is security in the broadest sense: the forum moved away from its military dimension, discussing more issues of food, energy and information security.
As a result of the forum, in addition to the general political declaration, two sectoral ones were adopted: “On the prevention of an arms race in outer space” and “On cooperation in the field of ensuring international information security.” These documents were adopted in an atmosphere of rivalry in the UN General Assembly, where Russian and Western resolutions on the militarization of space and information security compete, so joint program documents between Russia and African countries are a significant contribution to the parity of points of view. At the same time, the declaration on information security provides for the holding of a “Russia-Africa regional meeting on security in the use of information and communication technologies,” which could become an industry-wide event for interaction between Russia and African countries in the field of digital technologies.
The declaration confirms the commonality of approaches of the Russian Federation and African states to ensuring security in the use of information and communication technologies. It contains a statement that the use of information and communication technologies and cooperation in the field of ensuring international information security must be carried out in accordance with the principles of ensuring human rights and freedoms and generally recognized principles and norms of international law, enshrined primarily in the UN Charter.
The next Russian-African summit will take place in 2026; before that time, it is necessary to establish interstate cooperation on digital issues on a regular basis. It is precisely such events at the level of business, ministers, heads of departments and departments, rectors, experts, scientists, etc. that will help maintain the dynamics of Russian-African relations and the intensity of interaction and not turn Russian-African relations into a series of sporadic “summit” contacts. As a result, partners will have a real opportunity to resist the hegemony of the collective West in the field of information security and the fight against cyber threats, this will help strengthen the digital sovereignty of both Russia and African states.