Remarks by the Minister of State Security David Mahlobo, MP, at the closing session of State Security Cybersecurity Conference, Pretoria
Programme Director
Head of the Intelligence Academy, Mr Sarjoo
Leaders from Academia
Public Sector Officials
Members of the Private Sector
Ladies and Gentlemen
Members of the Media
Good morning
Introduction
Thank you Programme Director for the opportunity to address this conference on its final day. We have come to the end of what has been a very successful gathering of stakeholders from the government, private sector and academia, addressing a very important subject of cybersecurity.
The spirit of this conference reminded me of the clarion call that the Freedom Charter- whose 60th Anniversary we are celebrating this year- made when it declared that: “There shall be peace and friendship"
His Excellency President Zuma reminded us, on the occasion of our country's 60th anniversary of the Freedom Charter that: "The Freedom Charter is the foundation of our democratic and non-racial value system. It is an inspiring and visionary document that has shaped the development of democracy in South Africa and most importantly laid the foundation for the democratic South African Constitution"
As we celebrate the 21 years of our constitution, we must always be driven by the desire to create this non- sexist, non- racial and prosperous South Africa which our forebears spoke of.
Our mandate and policy approach
We continue, working within the Criminal Justice System, to play a significant role on the realisation of the vision of the National Development Plan (NDP) and Medium-Term Strategic Framework.
Our mandate is to secure South Africa’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, independence, her people, critical infrastructure, assets and interests within the security cluster.
Nations cannot secure their national sovereignty unless they assess the new emerging threats accordingly. We have deliberately decided to expand the traditional notions of security to address the non –traditional security threats and so develop a comprehensive approach to security.
Our priorities have taken into account the rapidly growing non-traditional security threats like the struggle for resources embedded in the pursuit of:
- Energy,
- Security,
- Environmental degradation,
- Forced immigration,
- International Terrorism,
International Terrorism and globalisation has resulted in softening of borders but unfortunately enabled main security problems to attain dangerous dimensions. International terrorism has moved to centre stage in the security discourse, and we have seen manifestations of such things as, cyber terrorism and cyber espionage.
Programme Director, as we have noted before, personal privacy and national security in the 21st century both depend on protecting a set of systems that didn’t even exist until late 20th century.
The advent of the electronic web of information-sharing known as cyberspace has revolutionised the world. It has brought exciting opportunities in developing our economies, improving our health care, education, agricultural production, military, provision of services etc. These opportunities are endless. In the same vein, electronic computing and communication pose some of the most complex challenges the world has ever faced. Utility systems providing electricity, gas, and water can be crippled by cyberspace disruptions. Attacks on any of these networks would potentially have disastrous consequences for individuals and for society.
Globally, nation states are faced with a challenge of putting measures in place to protect their territorial integrity, national security and critical infrastructures and citizens against cyber-attacks, cyber terrorism and cyber warfare.
Significant strides are being made in enhancing the security of the nation's critical physical infrastructure as well as its cyber infrastructure and networks. On the international front, we are strengthening our cooperation in this space with our SADC, AU and BRICS partners through existing mechanisms.
Conference deliberations
Programme Director, we have noted with keen interest the open and honest reflection through your presentation and input you had over the last four days. One thing that has been very clear is the common purpose of mind amongst all delegates to contribute to the development of solutions that will benefit our country against this world-wide phenomenon.
From a prevention- attacker perspective to a defensive solutions perspective to international collaboration and cooperation, we heard and shared a lot of information that will enhance our approach going forward.
We also noted the constructive criticism of our approach as government, in particular around issues of policy development and legislation. We welcome such criticism as it can only add value to the final output of our collective work.
Programme Director, as we meet here this week, the Gauteng Provincial Government has been hosting an e Government and ICT Summit discussing how technological advances can be put to good use to improve access and quality of various public services.
Such initiatives can be undermined if we who operate in the security space do not provide the necessary guidance, both in terms of policy and implementation, on how these systems are to be safeguarded.
Therefore the hour has come to adopt a pragmatic roadmap that consolidates all the hard work of the past four days into a clear programme of action.
When opening this conference on Day 1, the Deputy Minister Cde Ellen Molekane called for this conference to assess progress relating to policy development as well as addressing areas of collaboration and partnerships with private sector and academia in areas such as training and capacity development, civic education and awareness and research and development amongst other things.
At the Cybersecurity Symposium early this year, we noted that government's approach in dealing with matters of cybersecurity is premised on the policy principle that national security is a responsibility of the structures responsible for security in the Republic. We also said that government acknowledges the role of the private sector and the general public as the critical stakeholders in ensuring the secure use of ICTs.
It is for this reason that in our Budget and Policy Statement, we noted that we need to build more partnerships if we are to succeed. Our capacity to respond is depended on systems and human capital development.
We further called for working with universities and other research institutes to build the cybersecurity pipeline through competitive scholarship, fellowship, and internship programs, adding that these must be our pre-occupation to attract top talent and develop systems that have command and control in our hands, national sovereignty.
Programme Director; let me reiterate our commitment, at the Executive Authority level with regards to matters of cybersecurity.
This emphasis is a clear indication of the political will and appreciation of the gravity of the issues we are dealing with. Therefore there can be no doubting about whether we are committed to do the things that are needed to secure our country and create the conditions necessary for promoting safe cyber space use by all.
It is our expectation that clear resolutions will be developed from this conference. These resolutions should talk to the following, amongst other things:
- Strengthening of coordination between and among public and private sector structures, doing away with the silo-mentality
- Development of clear training and capacity development programmes, including the appropriate approvals from the Department of Higher Education
- Roll out of civic education and awareness and
- Strengthening of research and development with focus on home grown systems
We believe that Academic institutions should take a lead in developing academic programs that focus on developing the required technical skills in partnership with government. This should include an engagement on appropriate curriculum with relevant state entities. We strongly believe that this focus will assist South Africa in ensuring that students are channelled to courses that develop this capacity for the country.
It is for this reason that we should welcome the proposal made by Prof Von Solms- on the first day of this conference- around developing standardised training that targets young people.
The private sector is expected to contribute to national skills, research and development. The private sector is expected to implement information security standards and contribute to the protection of National Critical Information Infrastructures.
Programme Director, if our efforts are to be sustainable, we should underscore public cybersecurity awareness campaigns designed to increase public understanding of cyber threats and promote simple steps the public can take to increase their safety and security online.
To this end, civil society is expected to take interest in the general awareness programs and at least ensure their devices have updated malware protection. We therefore welcome the presentation by the Department of Telecommunication and Postal Services which spoke to these issues and stand ready to support these.
Having regard to the above, the following process must follow after the conclusion of this conference.
We must be in a position to take this work through the Justice Crime Prevention and Security Cluster (JCPS) committees on route to Cabinet. We want Cabinet to receive a presentation on this critical matter so that at the highest executive level of this country, there is appreciation of the magnitude of the threat we are dealing with
His Excellency President Zuma is very passionate and receptive to solutions that seek to improve the general security of our country. We must therefore seize this opportunity so that ultimately, we can walk the talk.
The Director General of State Security Agency will be responsible for ensuring that this done accordingly, without fail.
Conclusion
Programme Director, we must thank all delegates that have attended this four day conference. Equally, we thank the organisers and presenters for the hard work that has gone into making this conference a success.
Coming into this conference, we all knew that cybersecurity deals with real and present dangers to the developmental trajectory of our country and its people. Ours is to ensure that the positive spin-offs that accrue as a result of cyberspace and technological advancements are not undermined by criminal elements.
Accordingly, we must use the total sum of all our efforts to ensure that in line with our government’s commitment, our people are and feel safe whenever they conduct their business within the cyberspace.
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