Deputy Directors from Kenyan Ministry of ICT and ICT Authority along with INTERPOL’s Director of Cybercrime to speak at CyFrica 2022

As the pursuit for a robust African cybersecurity landscape gathers momentum, Tradepass has taken the initiative to host the 4th edition CyFrica at The Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi, Kenya on 28 – 29 June 2022.

To ensure the summit has the right guidance and attracts the right set of faculties, CyFrica 2022 now has Deputy Directors from the Ministry of ICT – Kenya and ICT Authority – Kenya, Timothy Were and Philip Irode respectively as part of its Advisory Board.

The summit aims to attract 1500+ pre-qualified cybersecurity experts (in-person & virtual) including the Heads of Information Security, Risk, Compliance, Forensics and Cyber Law from the leading public and private enterprises across Africa.

In an interview preceding the summit, Timothy Were (Deputy Director, Ministry of ICT – Kenya) stated his thoughts when asked about the reason behind majority of the African companies still not taking a major step to improve their cyber-defense, he expressed, “Ignorance, fear of exposure that could decrease customer and regulator confidence in the firms and not being alive to the fact that the ground is changing could be some of the reasons why firms are not improving their defense.”

He also added, “I would like to welcome each and every one of you to the CyFrica 4th edition, Karibu Kenya.”

Top renowned organizations like KnowBe4, Uniken, Gigamon, Plena Solutions Ltd., Wallix, Kaspersky, Acronis, IronTree and ManageEngine will be the face of the event as they will have their own exclusive exhibition booths to showcase their cutting-edge security solutions.

Fiona Konchellah (VP of Sales – Africa, Uniken) expressed her excitement for the summit, she said, “I’m thrilled to be a part of CyFrica 2022, alongside some of the top cybersecurity experts. I’m looking forward to discussions on Africa’s rapidly growing cybersecurity market, as well as sharing and learning best practices to ensure a safer Africa.”

She further added, “Now more than ever, it is crucial that we work together to identify and tackle cybersecurity threats in order to bring Africa’s digitization initiatives and aspirations to fruition.”

While talking about the state of Africa’s cybersecurity, Anna Collard (SVP Content Strategy & Evangelist, KnowBe4) mentioned, “According to KnowBe4’s African Cybersecurity Awareness survey released in early 2022, 54% of respondents did not know what a ransomware attack is and 34% have lost money because they fell victim to a scam. To ensure Africa’s people benefit from the increasing digitisation public and private sectors need to do more to raise consumer awareness around cybersecurity and threats and build a security culture within their own organisations.”

The summit will power two knowledge-packed days filled with insightful presentations on the most pressing industry topics, deep dive panel discussions with the leading thought leaders, live showcase of the best cybersecurity solutions and abundant networking opportunities.

The confirmed speakers for the summit include Timothy Were – Deputy Director, Ministry of ICT Kenya; Philip Irode – Deputy Director, ICT Authority, Kenya; Abdul-Hakeem Ajijola – Chair, African Union Cyber Security Expert Group (AUCSEG) Nigeria; Neil Walsh – Ambassador & Regional Representative to Eastern Africa, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Kenya; Cyrus Kamau – CIO, National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) Kenya; Bonface Asiligwa – CISO, KENTRADE Kenya; CRAIG JONES, Director of Cybercrime, INTERPOL; Laura Temesi – Head Cyber Partnerships and Communication, Standard Chartered Kenya; Ishaaq Jacobs – CISO, Sasol South Africa; Kabuthia Riunge – CISO, KCB Group PLC Kenya; Thelma Kganakga – CISO, Equity Bank Kenya; Amenyo Lotsu – CISO, ARB Apex Bank Ghana; Zechariah Akinpelu – CISO, Unity Bank Nigeria; Tim Theuri – Executive Head of Cybersecurity, M-Pesa Africa, Kenya; Cynthia K – Information Security Lead, GE Kenya; Stephen Obare – CIO, National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Kenya; George Ochola – Head Information Technology Security, National Bank of Kenya; Bernard Ambaka – CSO, Kenya Power; and Simion Rutto – Group Head of Forensics and Security Services, Britam Kenya.

Vijay Babber (Senior Channel Manager MEA, Gigamon) expressed his excitement for the summit, and whilst talking about the state of Africa’s cybersecurity in a hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure he said, “Gigamon is excited to be participating in person in this year’s Cyfrica event. We are seeing more and more companies’ cloud migration strategies accelerating, with hybrid cloud becoming the de-facto standard. The need to protect and secure hybrid cloud networks from cyber-attacks has become mission critical. When deploying applications into the public cloud, the security model becomes more nuanced, bringing on-board many challenges. With Gigamons Deep Observability Pipeline we overcome many if not all these challenges by providing access to all the data that we broker to the security tools, any source any destination. Our team will be happy to discuss the challenges and how Gigamon can help. We look forward to meeting you during the event.”

Organizer and CEO of Tradepass, Sudhir Jena expressed, “We feel extremely privileged to have Timothy Were and Philip Irode, the Deputy Directors from Kenyan Ministry of ICT and ICT Authority, as the Advisory Board Members for CyFrica 2022. Their involvement will not only aid us in expanding the participation for the summit but will also help in catering to many different sectors from the continent and foster the right collaborations for a better cyber landscape.”

For more information about the event, log on to: https://cyfricasummit.com/

World Business Outlook is the official media partner for the event

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