The Global Cybersecurity Index 2017 has placed Mauritius, Rwanda and Kenya as the top three countries in Africa that have a sustainable framework in fighting cybercrime.

The report measures legal, technical, organisational and capacity building efforts in dealing with threats.

According to the report Mauritius scored highly in legal and technical areas in fighting cyber criminals. "The Botnet Tracking and Detection project allows Computer Emergency Response Team of Mauritius (CERT-MU) to proactively take measures to curtail threats on different networks within the country," reads an excerpt from the report.

"Capacity building is another area where Mauritius does well. The government IT Security Unit has conducted 180 awareness sessions for some 2 000 civil servants in 32 government ministries and departments," it added.

The Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) for Mauritius stands at 0.83. The country ranks sixth globally.

Rwanda which is ranked second in Africa with a GCI score of 0.6, has an organisational pillar and a standalone cybersecurity policy that addressed both the private and the public sectors. "It is also committed to develop a stronger cybersecurity industry to ensure a resilient cyber space," it was reported.

Rwanda also is aiming to command the East Africa region in matters ICT as their government has made several measures to ensure that the country is e-driven. One of the major strides is to push for Smart cities starting with Kigali, by implementing IoT for government and public development.

Kenya the perceived ICT leader in the region scored a GCI rate of 0.57 to be listed third in Africa. Kenya has a Cybersecurity bill that is yet to be debated in parliament. Kenya has also been hailed in the report for having the National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team Coordination Centre (National KE-CIRT/CC).

"The CIRT coordinates at national, regional and global levels with a range of actors. Nationally this includes ISPs and the financial and educational sectors; regionally it works with other CIRTs through the East African Communications Organisation; and internationally it liaises with ITU, FIRST, and bi-laterally with the United States and Japan CIRTs among others," the report said.

However, Africa, on average, ranks low globally on legal (0.29), technical (0.18), cooperation (0.25) organisational (0.16) and capacity building (0.17) efforts in fighting cybercrime.