Agape Blog

THE US government has been providing training to South African state officials in computer forensics to increase SA’s capacity to fight cyber crime, credit card frauds, intellectual property (IP) and counterfeit crimes. The training is carried out by the US justice department, which also trains Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents. Its the first time that US department has trained individuals outside their country.

Lot of cyber crimes and related activities have hit the African continent badly. Especially countries like Nigeria contribute the largest percentage of cyber crimes in the world. Also many sectors like pharmaceutical, automotive parts, aircraft parts and consumer goods, such as clothing, eyewear and handbags have been vulnerable to attacks in recent times.

For the benefit of traders who lose more than $2bn due to cyber frauds, South African department approached their US counterparts to assist it with the training, aimed at honing the forensic and analytical skills of customs officials working for the South African Revenue Service , the police, the national prosecuting authority and officials working in the trade and industry department’s IP enforcement division.

So far 400 officials have been trained and it has helped in cutting down the trade in pirated movies by 90% in SA. They are now planning to train their officials in digital forensics as well.