Cyber Terrorism and National Security in Africa: a Case Study of Kenya
Abstract
Technology in the World today has taken up all facets of life today than ever before. For
instance Africa is rapidly developing and has become an increasingly technologically
advanced in its Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure. However, this
advancement has also introduced a new challenge to many states. The research study
objective was to examine cyber terrorism and national security in Africa through case study
of Kenya. This is because the spread of technology has created some new vulnerability within
the cyber domain that directly works to undermine national security. The susceptibilities of
cyber space to attacks have grown without a corresponding defensive capability. The
cybercriminals have developed an application that infiltrates and interfere with critical cyber
technology infrastructure to obtain classified information and breaks bank accounts to steal
money. This research employed quantitative and qualitative study approaches and the final
field data source was eventually analysed Statistical Packages for the Social Science while
qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. The respondents who participated in this
research included professionals in Information Communication Technology technical roles,
security officers, financial institutions, academia, diplomats, legal institutions Information
Technology and others. This research explored the measures and strategies applied in Kenya
to safeguard the ICT sector against cyber threats. The study analyzed how cyber terrorism has
on Kenya’s national security. The research contextualized the concept of cyber security
within the Securitization Theory in order to understand cyber technology and its effects to
national security. This study found that cyber-attacks in Kenya have become prevalent and
more serious to national security due to its porous nature and complexity. This research
further found that the increase in cyber threats has been associated with computer use across
various sectors of the economy which has attracted criminals to exploit the opportunities
available. This research concludes that threats posed by cyber terrorism spreads especially
with advancement of technology many cyber users have become vulnerable to online attacks
and the threats can be overwhelming since they originate from anywhere on the globe. This
section recommends that all government institutions shop protect their cyber systems against
threats through the use of firewalls and antivirus software to curb the spread of malware in
case a network is infected.
Publisher
university of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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