National cybersecurity capacity building framework for counties in a transitional phase.

Abstract

Building cybersecurity capacity has become increasingly a subject of global concern in both stable countries and those countries in a transitional phase. National and international Research & Technology Organisations (RTOs) have developed a plethora of guidelines and frameworks to help with the development of a national cybersecurity framework. Current state-of-art literature provides guidelines for developing national cybersecurity frameworks but, relatively little research has focused on the context of cybersecurity capacity building especially for countries in the transitional stage. Countries in a transition phase are typically characterised by civil war; political and economic upheaval; the absence of law. This has resulted in a critical knowledge gap that must be addressed through empirical research to guide these countries to develop and implement cybersecurity capacity platform. This thesis proposes a National Cybersecurity Capacity Building Framework (NCCBF) that relies on a variety of existing standards, guidelines, and practices to enable countries in a transitional phase to transform their current cybersecurity posture by applying activities that reflect desired outcomes. The NCCBF provides stability against unquantifiable threats and enhances security by embedding leading and lagging performance security measures at a national level. The NCCBF is inspired by a Design Science Research methodology (DSR) and guided by utilising modelling approach IDEF0. Developing this framework resulted in two qualitative studies, Interactive Management (IM) and Focus groups as the main data elicitation approach. These studies involving government officials, private sector, managers and general employees participating in security development from areas such as defence, e-services, the private sector, banking, the Digital Crime Unit, the Immigration and Foreigners Affairs Authority, the oil and gas sector and intelligence agencies. A set of objectives was derived from these studies to identify the key initiatives for the development of national cybersecurity capacity in the country. This research also used secondary data sources such as government reports, global indices, to validate the results of the research study. The findings suggest that countries in a transitional phase are vulnerable to cybersecurity risks, such as cybercrime and cyber terrorism, and that they lack of cybersecurity capacity areas such as; an adequate knowledge and awareness of cybersecurity, cybersecurity strategies and policies, technical controls, and incident response capabilities. Based on the research findings and analysis, a National Cybersecurity Capacity Building Framework (NCCBF) was constructed and evaluated, highlighting the key areas necessary for improving cybersecurity capacity of countries that are in a transitional phase. Furthermore, the NCCBF was evaluated by a structured set of criteria conducted within focus groups with experts from different countries including those from countries that were in a transitional phase. The evaluation demonstrated the valuable contribution of the NCCBF’s in representing the challenges in National Cybersecurity Capacity Building and the complexities associated in the build.