Cyber security affects anyone who plausibly has data stored on some device either remotely or locally e.g. on a smartphone.
The breadth and scope of cyber security threats is quite formidable and these threats become more stealthy and nefarious everyday. This is a universal problem not limited to developed countries.
In Kenya, more bandwidth and faster internet has seen a mushrooming of malware, phishing attacks and online fraud. Besides the recent defacement of the Kenya Police website, I have personally come across several other government websites infested with malware with the attackers gaining full access to the compromised host servers.
The problem I think is not just sensitization. A lot is talked about cyber security in the media, in seminars, blogs, social networks etc, but very little is done besides obtaining the latest anti-virus and downloading patches (for those who do so). This action alone is very insufficient as some malware is known to cripple and disable even the latest 'bug-proof' anti-virus.
Cyber security specialists; penetration testers,firewall experts, cryptographers, white-hat hackers and the professionals that could be on the vanguard of defense are quite a rare and a precious 'breed' in Kenya. Wasn't it high time more could be done by the government and private sector to train specialists in the wide field of cyber security? We need more cyber security professionals in this country.
In addition, having hacking conferences like out own version of DEFCON where hackers, government officials, security professionals and other interested stakeholders can assemble and see for themselves how real time security vulnerabilities can be exploited and either benign or malicious attacks are carried out on the victim. These informal conferences can go a long way in sensitizing and coming up with best practices with regards to cyber security.
Talking of cyber security, this article may also interest you: In June, the Pentagon drafted a cyber warfare policy in which it reserves to use military force against states or agents that target critical US computer and network infrastructure http://rt.com/usa/news/pentagon-cyber-military-computer/