“But I have done nothing wrong,” was all 12-year-old Jack* could say as he was being led to the police station in Kabale recently.
The pre-teen had been arrested for sodomising another child. When questioned further, Jack said he was only trying out things he had seen on his elder brother’s phone.
While some people were shocked by his actions others still blamed his brother for not being cautious.
There is such a thing as protecting your information from being leaked and also protecting children and the people that may find themselves subjected to the viewership of online content. That in a nutshell is what cyber security entails.
Cyber security involves many things, it can refer to the technologies and processes designed to protect computers, networks and data from unauthorised access.
Lillian Nalwoga, President of the Internet Society Uganda Chapter (ISOC) says cyber security should be a priority in Uganda because many Ugandans are getting online to connect with each other, conduct business as well as engaging with government to improve service delivery.
She adds that the rise of social media has driven many people online especially the youth who use it for connecting with friends and finding new opportunities.
“The way the Internet was built is such that it operates without boundaries, with no single entity owning it or governing its use. Therefore, whatever is shared on the Internet is shared with the entire Internet community,” she says.
James Saaka, Executive Director National Information Technology Authority Uganda (NITA-U) adds that the need for cyber security is growing in Uganda as we embrace an online culture.
“On social media for instance, we have a duty to protect our children from cyber bullying, cyber stalking and many other vices.
“The cyberspace provides uncountable opportunities for business, learning, social development, which must not be overshadowed by the vices,” he points out.
ISOC Uganda has worked with different stakeholders to raise awareness on different cyber security issues in the country.
Among these, they have joined hands with different Internet players in hosting the Uganda Internet Governance Forum, a forum that brings together different actors in the digital sphere to deliberate on several Internet issues and cyber security has been at the centre of these discussions.

Measures taken
“We also have an initiative on promoting Child Online safety in Uganda. We have worked with three schools and government through Ministry Of Information And Technology, NITA-U and Uganda Communications Commission to sensitise young people on how to be safe online,” Nalwoga adds.
ISOC has produced an online safety education kit that can be used by schools in Uganda to protect young people from the dangers of being on the Internet. - This can be accessed on http://Internetsociety.ug where parents are given tips on how to protect children against different aspects that pose as a threat to children on the Internet.
Saaka adds that Internet users need to educate themselves on responsible use so that they can safeguard from such crimes. NITA-U has developed and disseminated social media guidelines found (http://www.nita.go.ug/publication/government-uganda-social-media-guide) for government employees, these are also available for the general public to adopt.
The spread of Internet use is going to continue changing the way we live and interact and it is important that we act as responsibly online as we do offline.

How to protect yourself
Nalwoga says the first thing is to educate the public to desist from participating in such action (i.e agreeing to have their pictures taken or videos recorded). Why, you can never tell where and who will have access to that information. Secondly, if one is to take part in such an activity, they need to have proper security systems installed on their gadgets to avoid leakage of such information.
Saaka advises people to maintain the same vigilance they have towards personal security in their offline lives as they do business online.
“If you cannot walk on the streets of Kampala half-naked, then the same rule should apply online. In the same breath, if you lock your door before you go to sleep then you ought to lock your phone,” he says. “The principles which apply in our offline lives should be the same online because the Internet space has even more eyes.”
Nalwoga says that it is possible to have such wrong content not circulated as it can be censored right from the service provider.
But this involves violation of Internet principles as service providers will be required to be on the alert in monitoring, creating filters and blocking of this content thus making them liable to content shared on their networks (with or without their knowledge) as provided in the Anti-pornography Act.
However, this should not be the case. Service providers should not be liable to content hosted on their networks instead; they should be able to remove certain content after receiving notification from a user.

Source: Daily Monitor