Cybersecurity awareness in Somalia

Cybersecurity awareness is a crucial component for maintaining a healthy cybersecurity state. Somalia is a developing nation with a fragile cybersecurity sector due to various issues, including lacking an official national cybersecurity strategy, an official functioning CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), and national cybercrime regulations. Therefore, a critical evaluation of Somalia’s cybersecurity state and awareness was studied. The research investigated the level of cybersecurity awareness in Somalia, focusing on the general public, telecom service providers, banking, and government institutions. The research was able to identify cybersecurity areas within these sectors with the highest knowledge gaps and thus provide insights into the different risk levels amongst the sectors. A quantitative method in the form of a survey with the distribution of self-completion google forms was used to identify the level of cybersecurity awareness. The study had a total of 192 respondents across the four sectors. The principal method used during the study was a questionnaire survey which revealed how much the general public is aware of in terms of cybersecurity, what areas the banking and telecommunication sectors are lacking in, as well as what the government needs to do to improve the cybersecurity within the country as a whole. An analysis of the survey results showed that Somalia has a weak cybersecurity state and low cybersecurity awareness level. Moreover, the research revealed that most participants have never received cybersecurity awareness training and thus were not prepared for the risks and threats from a pre-emptive perspective. The research is applicable in both the private and public sectors in Somalia since relevant stakeholders can exploit the results to mitigate existing challenges