Social Media: National Campaign On Responsible Usage Launched

The Minister of Post and Telecommunications, Minnette Liboum Li Likeng has officially opened the National Campaign for the promotion of the culture of cyber security and awareness of responsible use of social media.

The session in its 1st phase will go from August 12 to 19 2020. The weeklong campaign has been organized under the theme: “All mobilized for cyber security in Cameroon”

The initiative the seeks to ensure responsible use of the cyber space is composed workshops with different stakeholders from public and private sectors, business organizations, security services, start ups and civil society organizations in Cameroon.

The Minister of Post and Telecommunications, Minette Liboum Li Likeng also announced the creation of a National Coalition for the responsible use of social media in Cameroon before the end of the year in order to get all strata of society involved.

Objective Of Campaign

The National Campaign for the promotion of the culture of cyber security and awareness of responsible use of social media seek to:

– Raise awareness of threats from global cyberspace and encourage cyber security measures

– Draw attention of decision makers and state corporations on the implementation of network security protocol

– Raise awareness of responsible use of the social media

– Set up a national coalition for the promotion for the responsible use of social media

Measures Taken To Enhance Cyber Security

The Ministry has carried out a number of activities this far to check cyber attacks in the country amongst which are measures taken to:

– Inform the public on the criminal penalties for spreading false or misleading news through social media

– Support public and private structures on the certification of their official accounts

– Promote better digital governance by press men and women

– Support competent administration in the acquisition of technical equipments including the acquisition of digital investigation laboratories for the General Delegation for National Security and the National Advance School of Engineering in Yaoundé.

Situation Of Cyber Threats

The Minister indicated that no country is speared from cyber threats adding that the risk higher with the increase in rate of dependence on the rate. She specified that internet access in Cameroon has increased from 10% in 2007 to 30% in 2020 thereby increasing dependence on the web and risk of cyber attacks especially when software are not updated.

Statistics on cyber attacks from the Ministry indicate that

– 1.1 million victims of bank card fraud in 2016 twice the number in 2011.

– More than 83% of smart phones were infected malware within the second half of 2016, according to Nokia.

– 5.6 million personal data was stolen at a rate of 65 data per second.

-201 days are needed for a company to discover a cyber attack and 70 days to overcome it.

1.7 billion Fraudulent adverts in 2016

140 attacks by phishing per hour and 1.22 million attacks by phishing in 2016 according to anti phishing group with an increase of 65% compared to 2015.

About 278000 fake websites identified in less than a year

Individuals are two times more exposed to cyber attacks than professionals.

Average 29 cyber attacks on a company in 2016 according to CESIN

Ransom ware is the most widely used forms of cyber attacks

In the phase of these statistics government seeks to mobilise all Cameroonians to strive for cyber security in the country’s cyberspace.

Elvis Teke