By XAVIER MANCHISHI
  –

ZAMBIA will this year host the first Africa training workshop for professionals in the fight against cyber crime dubbed Cyber Drill.
The workshop scheduled for September 29-October 1 in Livingstone is being organised by the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
ZICTA technology engineering director Patrick Mutimushi said the workshop was targeted at training Computer Incidence Response Teams (CIRTs) professionals on the continent.
Mr Mutimushi said the Cyber Drill coupled with other local interventions were an indication that Zambia was joining the rest of the world in fighting cyber crime which is on the rise.
He said Zambia on her part had recently opened a forensic laboratory at the Zambia Police headquarters in Lusaka to curb the scourge.
Mr Mutimushi said Zambia had embraced Information Communications Technology (ICTs) as part of the global village but that some people were using them to commit cyber crimes.
‘‘In as much as we know that the internet is good, there are also issues of cyber crime which is the most sophisticated kind of crime. As ZICTA we are taking them on,’’ he said.
He listed the most common forms of cyber crime as hacking, online identity theft, spamming, software piracy and pornography which was the most akin to Zambia lately.
The Electronics and Communication Transactions (ECT) Act of 2009 Number 102 stipulates that a person who produces pornography for the purpose of distribution through a computer system or possession on any data storage medium is liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years.
‘‘Be sensitive with what you hold on your smart phones and other devices. With the equipment available to us at forensic lab and elsewhere, we are able to find whose device is exchanging pornography with who,’’ he added.
Mr Mutimushi said ZICTA had not only trained its staff to fight cyber crime but also Police officers who were the enforcers of the law.
ZICTA cyber security officer Nawa Samatebele said people had to abide by Zambian laws regardless of whether they used a social media platform that was regulated from abroad.