The Egyptian government has outlined several interventions it intends to pursue in order to better protect the country's cyberspace.

Authorities detailed plans at the 5th Regional Cybersecurity Summit in Egypt this week, organised by the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Regional Cybersecurity Centre (RCC) in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Yasser ElKady, Minister of Communications and Information Technology in Egypt told attendees during a session that he chaired on data privacy and political frameworks that 'cyberattacks pose as grave a threat as terrorism' and require coordinated efforts in response.

The ICT Minister cited legislative efforts by his government including plans to pass an electronic signature and informatics crime law, as well as another law on cybersecurity that will be presented to the Parliament in its current session.

He added that a decree would be issued by the country's Prime Minister to form a supreme council of cyber-security.

Egypt has also enrolled for practical technical training on how to deal with cyberattacks in cooperation with the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) according to the Minister.

Greater cooperation

Minister ElKady emphasised the need to incorporate protection programs for systems and hardware in partnership with the private sector when establishing smart cities, regions and communities across the continent.

His call for partnerships comes days after Kaspersky Lab signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Smart Africa Alliance, which will see the two parties working together to drive improvement of protection of networks and critical systems, as well as raise cybersecurity awareness across the African continent.

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame serves as chairman of the Smart Africa Board.

Dr. Hamadoun Touré, Executive Director of Smart Africa restated the need for greater cooperation in order to achieve cyber security in Africa at the signing of the MoU.

"As we move Africa to becoming an information and knowledge-driven society, it becomes absolutely necessary to cooperate with major cybersecurity organisations, such as Kaspersky Lab, to ensure that rapidly growing digital infrastructure is safe and secure. In the digital age, network security and integrity of information are becoming extremely important, as does the confidentiality of personal data. This makes cybersecurity a top priority for Smart Africa. We are very pleased with our cooperation with Kaspersky Lab."