A South African perspective on cyber-warfare

As with many other nations, South Africa is looking to improve its cyber-defense capability following the attacks on Estonia and Georgia. South Africa would regard a cyber-based incident that causes major disruption to national information systems as an act of war. Much of the country’s information warfare and cyber-warfare capabilities are still classified, therefore publications containing doctrine-related material are scarce. What is clear is that there is increasing concern over the growing prevalence and availability of broadband services, coupled with the lack of user awareness. Adequate legislative, incident response and monitoring mechanisms at a strategic level are also lacking to a certain degree, therefore there is no holistic view of cyber-security incidents in South Africa.