The Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) has attributed the country’s improvement in cyber security to the national cyber security strategy launched last year.

Aaron Nyelesi, Director, Broadcasting and Corporate Communications, said the strategy has improved Botswana’s ranking on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Global Cybersecurity Index 2020 (GCI).

The Index has ranked Botswana 12th out of 43 African countries, and 88th out of 182 countries globally.

“Pursuant to the implementation of the strategy, Botswana established the National Computer Incident Response Team (BWCIRT), the National Cybersecurity Risk Assessment (NCRA) of the Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) and drafting of the National Cybersecurity Act to enhance its capability in addressing the issues of cybersecurity,” said Nyelesi.

The country’s progress comes after Botswana achieved a score of 0.53 (or 53.05%) for the 2020 index which is an improvement from 0.44 (44%) attained in 2018.

GCI is an initiative of the ITU and measures adherence to cybersecurity commitments by member states of the ITU across five pillars - legal measures, technical measures, organization measures, capacity development measures and cooperation measures.

Botswana has performed strongly on the legal, organisational and capacity development measures attaining scores of 16.4, 14.16 and 13.23 respectively, out of a maximum score of twenty.

Nyelesi said the country still needs to improve on the technical and cooperation measures.