This was the key objective of a three-day workshop that took place recently, organised by the National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies, ANTIC.

For the two days, attendees of the workshop listened to presentations from experts of the cybersecurity sector as well as from other related industry players, on the broad notion of cybercriminality which is a fast growing concern in Cameroon today.

Tackling Cybercrime

With the supersonic changes in digital technologies and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic which caused a spike in digital transactions, cybercriminals have also taken advantage of the situation to device new ways and means of perpetrating their activities online.

It is against this backdrop that ANTIC thought it wise to bring together actors who are at the heart of criminal probes and procedures to share ideas and brainstorm on how to handle the phenomenon given that the commission of economic crimes is also being facilitated through digital means these days.

In the course of the training, the participants received lessons on various cybersecurity-related subjects including cybercrime and its legal ramifications in the Cameroonian context, maintaining digital public order and digital intelligence gathering, techniques of collecting digital evidence, as well as methods of identifying cybercriminals and the relevant legal provisions that sanction them.

Legal Context

To ANTIC’s Director General, Prof Enaw Ebot Ebot, the workshop was organised as part of the mandate of the institution to accompany government in not only promoting of the use of ICTs but in ensuring that this is done in an atmosphere of digital security. He said the blessings of ICT tools notwithstanding, there is the urgent need for stakeholders to speed up efforts in tackling cybercrime which is costing the state financially. 

The Minister Delegate at the Ministtry of Justice, Jean de Dieu Momo, who addressed attendees at the start of the workshop, noted the importance of the exercise and thanked ANTIC for the initiative. He said it will go a long way in giving a boost to government’s efforts in the fight against cybercriminality.

Noting that he has been a victim of cybercrime himself, Momo took time off to cite a couple of sections of the penal code as well as the 2010 law on cybercriminality which describe certain cybercrimes and the penalties they attract.

He said the workshop was a veritable platform for synergy between ANTIC, Magistrates of the SCC and judicial police officers to tighten their collaboration on how to detect, investigate and punish cybercriminality.