SUMMARY BOX
o ICT secretary Joe Mucheru said that revisions to the proposed law, which was published in June 2017, had been inspired by the Russian hacking scandal in the 2016 US elections.
o American officials are investigating allegations that Russian hackers influenced the election in favour of Donald Trump.
o The French elections held earlier this year were also marred by hacking claims while Germany has been warned of serious security flaws in some of the software it uses in voting.
Kenya, September 18, 2017//-Cyber criminals, convicted of hacking into government databases to mine State secrets for sale to foreign countries, will serve 20 years in jail if Parliament passes a Bill seeking to tame the growing white-collar crime.
The Computer and Cybercrimes Bill 2017, a revised version of a 2016 law, also proposes fines of up to Sh10 million for “unlawful” access or interception of data from a national critical information infrastructure to “benefit a foreign State against” Kenya.
ICT secretary Joe Mucheru said that revisions to the proposed law, which was published in June 2017, had been inspired by the Russian hacking scandal in the 2016 US elections.
“We had an election in the United States and it became very clear that cyber espionage is actually the way things are going,” said Mr Mucheru.
American officials are investigating allegations that Russian hackers influenced the election in favour of Donald Trump.
The French elections held earlier this year were also marred by hacking claims while Germany has been warned of serious security flaws in some of the software it uses in voting.
Kenya has had its own election hacking scandal arising from opposition National Super Alliance’s (Nasa) claim that the electoral commission’s systems were electronically compromised during the August 8 elections. There have been no allegations that foreign governments were involved.
Businessdayafrica.com
