‘Stronger when together’ - How to advance cyber resilience through NREN and nCSIRT collaboration

Trust, mutual understanding, and shared responsibility are three crucial imperatives for an enduring security collaboration between NRENs and national CSIRTs across Africa, to safeguard digital infrastructures and strengthen the response of the research and education community against cyber threats. This emerged during the insightful cybersecurity panel discussion which included subject matter experts from Open CSIRT Foundation, ECOWAS, Shadowserver Foundation, NRD Cyber Security and WACREN. 

The panel posited that sharing sensitive threat intelligence becomes difficult, if not impossible, without the above-mentioned. In this regard, trusted, neutral platforms—such as Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs)—can enable open and safe communication between NRENs and national CSIRTs. 

The panel advocated for joint training initiatives, simulations, and developing a common language around cybersecurity. This would not only strengthen technical responses to incidents but also foster a culture of collaboration and mutual support, putting TrustBroker Africa’s capacity-building efforts into perspective. 

The conversation also highlighted the need to make threat intelligence more actionable. While many institutions receive regular reports, they often lack the tools or knowledge to interpret and respond effectively. Empowering local teams to act on this information and encouraging them to share their data is a critical step toward more responsive cybersecurity infrastructures. In line with this, TrustBroker Africa, under the auspices of WACREN, will host a threat intelligence workshop in Accra for nCSIRTs and NREN CSIRT. This workshop aims to improve their understanding of actionable cyber threat data and strengthen their technical capabilities to interpret and address vulnerabilities.

The session highlighted practical mechanisms to professionalise cybersecurity structures. Initiatives like TrustBroker Africa and the SIM3 maturity model were discussed as ways to evaluate and guide the development of CSIRTs, while also helping to define clear roles and relationships between cybersecurity and education network communities.

The discussion’s trajectory pointed to the need to move beyond parallel tracks and begin real, structured collaboration to bridge the gaps and work more effectively together in an increasingly complex threat landscape.