‘ICT policy review coming’

Dar es Salaam. A review of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy is in the pipeline to help address cybercrime, deputy minister for Communication, Science and Technology January Makamba has said.
The ICT policy of 2003 is outdated and doesn’t augur well for the current technological advancement, according to Mr Makamba.
Winding up a two-day training workshop aimed at curbing cybercrime as well as launching a website that addresses cybercrime at www.esucurity.co.tz in the city at the weekend, Mr Makamba said there was a need for protecting online transactions.
“We have rushed on online transactions without putting in place a workable mechanism to keep hackers at bay,” he said.
According to Mr Makamba, since ICT business is growing considerably, it is important to contain hackers.
On policy reviewing, Mr Makamba said such a move would help the government move abreast with the fast changing trends in ICT.
“We are reviewing the policy to help our officials acquaint with ICT and you need to know that at the moment many of our websites are never updated,” he said.
For his part, the director of Twiga Hostings Limited, Mr Jacob Urassa, the host of the two-day training programme, said they were determined to make Tanzania a hub of online security that would allow players to enjoy surfing without fear.
“Nowadays we come across a number of cases related to hacking, but with such training we want to see foreigners coming to the country to purchase such software,” he noted.
According to Mr Urassa, 80 per cent of internet users in the world are prone to hackers.
The two-day training workshop brought together webmasters and online editors from a number of government and private institutions.