Analysis of the Cybersecurity Threats in Botswana Using Publicly Available Data

Introduction

Botswana is one of Africa’s most stable and peaceful democracies with a growing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) since independence in 1966. The country has an estimated population of 2,346,179 (Statistics Botswana, 2022) and a GDP of USD 20.36 billion (World Bank, 2022). Mining and quarrying are the major contributor to GDP followed by public administration & defense, wholesale & retail, and construction respectively (Statistics Botswana, 2023). As of 2023, the mobile penetration of Botswana was at 173% of the total population since one person can use multiple networks (Statista, 2024). Botswana as a model of democracy as well as a major diamond mining hub in Africa is threatened by the recent spike in criminal and terrorist activity on the internet (National Cyber Security Centre, 2020; African Union Commission, Symantec, 2016; Serianu Limited, 2018; Sarefo, Dawson, & Mphago, 2023). The ongoing cyber threat in Botswana has been displayed through social media manipulation, and attacks on essential services in nearby countries such as South Africa (Gallagher & Burkhardt, 2021). These services such as online banking, citizens of Botswana are dependent upon. In some cases, these attacks are enabled by outdated information technology systems where criminals can easily exploit vulnerabilities (Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2023). Financial-related cyber-attacks in the country include cryptocurrency attacks, social media impersonation of religious leaders to raise funds, and fake adverts that sell inexistent goods that defraud people of their money (Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2023).

Botswana is faced with a shortage of available workers in the field of cybersecurity and attracting foreign workers is still a problem (Serianu Limited, 2018; Maramwidze, Civil society in Botswana puts spotlight on cyber attacks, 2023). This is because Botswana has been mainly focused on investing in mining diamonds as this is the main contributor to GDP (World Bank, 2021). As such, in 2018 Botswana only had 250 professionals with certifications in the cybersecurity area (Serianu Limited, 2018). Implementing cybersecurity strategies at a national level is therefore still a priority. The ongoing Mozambican war which is linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is also a threat to cybersecurity in Botswana (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2021). With the ongoing geopolitical power wars, states also see the cyberspace as an opportunity to achieve such objectives using asymmetrical warfare tactics (Bradshaw, 2017). In this study, online (publicly available) statements from Information Technology (IT) professionals and government speeches are analyzed to investigate the national cybersecurity activity. The keywords “cybersecurity Botswana”, “cyber security Botswana”, “cyber Botswana”, “cyber risk Botswana” and “cyber threat Botswana” were used to search for such articles online. The terms “cyber” and “cyber security” were also replaced with “Information Technology”, “IT”, “computer” and “network” respectively, to broaden the search scope. The cybersecurity threat landscape is not well publicised in Botswana and IT professionals are reluctant to share threat landscape data. As such Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) data from popular cybersecurity providers is used in this study to investigate the threats in Botswana.