Mauritius is the top ranked country in the Africa region on the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) 2017 and ranks 6th globally.
The Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) is a survey produced by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that measures the commitment of Member States to cybersecurity in order to raise awareness.
The report states that Mauritius scores particularly high in the legal and the technical areas. The Botnet Tracking and Detection project allows Computer Emergency Response Team of Mauritius (CERT-MU) to proactively take measures to curtail threats on different networks within the country.
Capacity building is another area where Mauritius does well. The government IT Security Unit has conducted 180 awareness sessions for some 2 000 civil servants in 32 government ministries and departments. Rwanda, ranked second in Africa, scores high in the organizational pillar
The goal of the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) is to help foster a global culture of cybersecurity and its integration at the core of ICTs. This second iteration of the GCI measures the commitment of ITU Member States towards cybersecurity in order to drive further efforts in the adoption and integration of cybersecurity on a global scale.
GCI top 10 global ranking:
1. Singapore; 2. USA; 3. Malaysia; 4. Oman; 5. Estonia; 6. Mauritius; 7. Australia; 8. Georgia and France;10. Canada
GCI top 10 ranking in Africa :
1. Mauritius; 2. Rwanda; 3. Kenya; 4. Nigeria; 5. Uganda, 6. South Africa; 7. Botswana; 8.Côte d’Ivoire; 9. Cameroon;10. Ghana
The GCI revolves around the ITU Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA) and its five pillars (legal, technical, organizational, capacity building and cooperation). For each of these pillars, questions were developed to assess commitment. Through consultation with a group of experts, these questions were weighted in order to arrive at an overall GCI score. The survey was administered through an online platform through which supporting evidence was also collected.
One-hundred and thirty-four Member States responded to the survey throughout 2016. Member States who did not respond were invited to validate responses determined from open-source research. As such, the GCI results reported herein cover all 193 ITU Member States.