The Cyber-Security State of our Nation: A Critique of South Africa's Stance on Cyber-Security in Respect of the Protection of Critical Information Infrastructure

The society we live in faces many technological challenges on a daily basis, especially in developing nations such as South Africa. One such challenge is that of protecting critical information infrastructure (CII) and sensitive, mission critical information. A huge role player in the protection of these two vital components of sustainable development is the private sector. Much of a nations CII is owned, operated and maintained by the private sector. However, the responsibility of setting goals to protect a nations CII and sensitive, mission critical information is that of the government's. Protecting CII can be seen as being very difficult and there are many influencing factors. There are many barriers that prevent the adequate protection of CII within a developing country such as South Africa. This paper will attempt to identify key contributing factors and barriers to the lack of cyber-security around CII, the need and lack of public private partnerships to protect CII, a critique of the publicly available South African National Cyber-Security Policy Framework as well as the recently released CyberCrimes and Cyber-Security bill. The paper concludes by applying academic research with professional knowledge and experience in order to present a few recommendations to both the government and private sector regarding the protection of CII in South Africa.