Cameroon Looks to Increase Cyber Security

This was written by Jim Garrettson on Wednesday, January 6, 2010, 17:28.

Cameroon, presently home of the most risky Internet websites according to McAfee, is looking to revamp its image. The west African country is looking to improve Internet security for websites hosted in Cameroon.

The domain names registered in Cameroon have a ‘.cm’ on the end, which cyber criminals exploit in cyber squatting campaigns, appearing as legitimate web pages for unwary web surfers that mistype ‘.com.’ Criminals use the false websites to distribute malware through infected coding and gather personal information from unsuspecting Internet users.

However, the current minister of posts and telecommunications, Jean-Pierre Biyiti Bi Essam, claims that Cameroon is looking to turn this situation around. He claims that it is unwise to judge the nation too harshly, as they are still in the nascent stages of Internet use and will get better as the country develops a larger Internet infrastructure.

By way of example, Biyiti Bi Essam highlights Cameroons cooperation with South Korea in an effort to bolster cyber security in Cameroon. Additionally, the government is looking to tackle the problem by going after cyber criminals, through harsher criminal laws. A number of criminals use nations such as Cameroon (and the former Soviet Republics) to engage in cyber criminal activity because of a lack of enforcement.

If Cameroon is able to effectively prosecute cyber criminals and bolster the nation’s cyber security through increased international cooperation, it could very well become a nation that doesn’t serve as a haven for cyber crime.