By Staff Reporter
Zambia’s former High Commissioner to Nigeria Solomon Jere says cyber space loopholes must be sealed as the corrupt are using them to siphon their loot outside the country
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Amb Jere, the former deputy Inspector General of Police, warned that Zambia’s development goals will be going down the drain because the country was missing the target if the “porous cyber space” was not addresse.
“It may make it difficult (to fight corruption) because its porous. The cyber space is too open, so we need to fill the loopholes to make the call for fight against corruption to materialise into a realistic gain for development. Otherwise we are looking at one angle, the other angle is open. Corrupt minds now they are using the cyber space, which is insecure,” Amb Jere said. “Our leaders may look at the physical side of property but the cyber space, which is still open, that needs to to be taken care of by the institutions that have been put in place by the government.”
Amb Jere said institutions should engage into training officers in the investigative wings to get to grips with the digital phase which he said knew no borders.
“Smart Zambia, that is the beginning of a good effort towards strengthening the areas of cyber space. But it needs to be boosted with a lot of support and the support should come in terms of training,” Amb Jere said.
He described Zambia as naked in terms of cyber security.
Amb Jere said the police were completely blank, saying one should challenge any police officer on what they knew about cyber security, and the majority were blank.
He said the police were trained to police physical property but the cyber space was not policed, saying other countries have compacted the space with police presence in the cyber space.
Amb Jere said Zambia should sit up from its cyber insecurity.
“We are facing the mammoth task of combating cyber insecurity and as long as we focus on tangible property we shall be losing the point. The cyber space is unpoliced. We need to tighten our belts and face it with both hands,” Amb Jere said, adding that the weapons that should be used to police the cyber space are not there. “The police are not yet equipped. The government needs to invest in the police to train our police officers, to recruit qualified manpower to look after the cyber space, to look at the equipments for policing the cyber space, the regulation that should be able to be used by the police to enforce the safety of all the Zambians.”
Amb Jere said right now the movement of things like finances was not physical and cyber criminals have used the ignorance of many people who do not know how the movement of funds are done by diverting the movement of funds.
Amb Jere added that police for instance could not arrest the stealing of online news even if people complained as they did not have the capacity to prosecute that.
“Ask any police officer, do they understand crypto currency? Do they understand the genetics surrounding the crypto currency? What is the fake crypto currency and which one is genuine? So we need to rest or reboot our mindset, the legal mindset, not only the police but even the judiciary. So it’s the entire criminal justice system that need to be transformed because the world has changed. We were talking about the pickpocketers, the old type of crime, but now that is long gone. You are talking about cyber criminals,” said Amb Jere. “So in terms of security we are not even there. Out of 54 counties (in Africa) there are only 17 countries that have got national policy on cyber security. Does that include Zambia? I don’t know since I have just come in.”
