The Global Cybersecurity Index 2017 was recently released. Brahima Sanou, Director of Telecommunication Development Bureau said that the global community is increasingly embracing ICTs as key enabler for social and economic development. Governments across the world recognize that digital transformation has the power to further the prosperity and wellbeing of their citizens. In supporting this transformation, they also recognize that cybersecurity must be an integral and indivisible part of technological progress.
The Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) is a survey that measures the commitment of Member States to cybersecurity in order to raise awareness. The 2017 publication of the GCI continues to show the commitment to cybersecurity of countries around the world. The overall picture shows improvement and strengthening of all five elements of the cybersecurity agenda in various countries in all regions.
The objective of the GCI as an initiative is to help countries identify areas for improvement in the field of cybersecurity, as well as to motivate them to take action to improve their ranking, thus helping raise the overall level of commitment to cybersecurity worldwide. There are five pillars of the GCI namely: legal, technical, organizational, capacity building and cooperation.
Mauritius was ranked 6th globally among 193 members of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Mauritus is the top ranked country in the Africa region. It scores particularly high in
the legal (0.85), capacity building (0.91) and the technical areas (0.96). The total score is 0.83 with Rwanda (0.6) in second place followed by Kenya (0.57) in third. With regards to the organizational (0.74) and cooperation (0.7) areas, more can still be done.
It is important to note that Mauritius has gained 3 places with reference to the 2014 index. This reaffirms the position of Mauritius as a destination that provides a robust and secure ICT ecosystem.
Sources
Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) 2017