Technology
Information Technology (IT) professionals have been challenged to be abreast with emerging technologies and the evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to build digital trust.
More than 2000 IT practitioners are meeting in Mombasa under The Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) Kenya Chapter to embrace the extraordinary potential of AI and empower the members to build a more secure, trustworthy, and resilient future amid cyber security threats.
ISACA Kenya Chapter President Mercy Omolo says the Annual conference brings together experts from various IT realms in the public and private sectors to discuss digital trust and how they can build trust and a resilient future for their organizations and the country.
The theme of the meeting is Digital Trust: Charting the Course for a Resilient Future.
“We train and equip our members with knowledge on ICT matters relating to cyber security, IT audit, IT risk, data privacy, and information security. We also collaborate with government and provide our expertise input into various topical matters relating to IT such as regulations, and ICT bills,” elucidated Omolo.
AI, she says will offer numerous opportunities to Kenya through innovation that will improve processes. “You can automate a lot of things that traditionally will have been done by humans,” stated Omolo.
Organizations deploying AI were advised to ensure they have proper safeguards in place to mitigate risks that come with the use of AI and to prevent data breaches.
ISACA she noted trains their IT auditors to be able to detect where there are anomalies in mobile phone technologies. President Omolo emphasized that the IT industry should have professionals who have the right credentials and are accredited.
The IT professionals were urged to continue building their expertise, retraining and upscaling to be able to evolve and support their organization in case there is a new cyber threat that has emerged.
On his part, ICT Authority Director of Shared Services Michael Odhiambo stated that cyber threat is a global phenomenon and ICTA is banking on coordination and linkages with other nations to identify and mitigate cyber threats in advance.
“The National Public Key Infrastructure (NPKI) is one of the cyber security measures put in place to ensure government transactions are done securely and safely,” said Odhiambo. He termed the Data Protection Act, 2013 as a game changer in the industry and many countries are benchmarking on the act.
“It has aligned a lot of grey areas around data protection. If you are a data collector and you haven’t registered as a collector there are ramifications,” said Omolo, adding, that ICTA ensures that companies working with the government are accredited.