Regional Cybersecurity Project

Overview

‘Increasing Cybersecurity Situational Awareness and Strengthening the Operational Capacities of the Research and Education Community in West and Central Africa Project’ is a strategic pilot project between WACREN and The Shadowserver Foundation, aimed at increasing cybersecurity situational awareness and incident response capabilities in the region.

With support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Foreign Office and in partnership with ECOWAS, this initiative delivers critical threat intelligence services, infrastructure support and technical training to WACREN National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), and national CSIRTs under the ECOWAS ambit. The pilot project duration is nine months (October 2024 to June 2025).

The project is part of the cyber capacity-building activities under the Joint Platform for Advancing Cybersecurity in West Africa, launched by the ECOWAS Commission in 2022 in collaboration with Germany’s G7 presidency. It is also part of WACREN’s broader cybersecurity strategic plan to make our NRENs and member institutions cyber resilient.

Main Objective

The project's objective is to enable WACREN to operate as a regional cyber threat intelligence hub for the research and education community and, hence, contribute to increased awareness of existing threats in the region.

Key Outcomes 

1. WACREN is equipped with the necessary threat intelligence feeds and has access to actionable data that can be used for any vulnerability or threat remediation
2. Strengthened capacities of the WACREN community on how to effectively utilise cyber threat intelligence data feeds
3. Increased regional awareness through ECOWAS Internet Threat Landscape high-level Report delivered by project partners. This will inform decision-makers on cybersecurity issues faced in the region.

Project Beneficiaries

1. The primary beneficiaries: WACREN and its connected NRENs
2. Secondary beneficiaries: wider NREN and ECOWAS national CSIRT community.

Beneficiaries will get:

• Enhanced Cyber Threat Visibility: Real-time awareness of malicious activities targeting infrastructure and networks.
• Early Warning: Rapid identification of infected or compromised assets.
• Threat Intelligence Feeds: Tailored daily reports based on global data sources.
• Technical Support: Continuous engagement and support from Shadowserver and WACREN
• Community-Building: Integration into a regional community of cybersecurity stakeholders participating in TrustBroker Africa.
• Training Opportunities: Hands-on workshops and operational knowledge transfer throughout the project's lifespan and continuing in TrustBroker Africa.