Published: 3 hours ago

Zimbabwe is facing increasing cybersecurity threats due to heavy reliance on international digital servers for storing national and personal data, a senior government official has warned.

Tawanda Mushiri, Technical Director at the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre (SIRDC), highlighted the risks while speaking at the International Conference on Education (ICE) hosted by the Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) in Harare. Mushiri cited a recent government report showing a surge in organised cybercrime over the past three years, including online scams, business email compromises, investment fraud, malware, and ransomware attacks.

"Storing personal and national data on foreign platforms poses a severe risk to data sovereignty and security," Mushiri said. "Some people smile because their data is on Dropbox, Google Drive, or the cloud. But where is the cloud? Where is Google Drive? These are key issues. Foreign adversaries monitor our data and prepare themselves accordingly. They know us more than we know ourselves."

Mushiri urged Zimbabwe to pursue technological self-sufficiency, pointing to China as a model for developing secure domestic platforms. "That is why you see China closed in on itself. They don't use Google or WhatsApp; they have their own systems because they are prepared," he said.

ZOU Vice-Chancellor Paul Gundani echoed the call for local innovation, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI). "If we simply use ChatGPT, Deepseek, or Meta, we are not contributing towards the equity we want. We are promoting a situation where the global north and China dominate Africa. We must think through what this means for us and for future generations," Gundani said.

The two-day ICE conference, themed Transforming Education: The Future of ODEL and Technology in Teaching and Learning, brought together academics, researchers, policymakers, and consultants from across southern Africa to discuss developments in Open and Distance e-Learning (ODEL) and technology in education.

Both Mushiri and Gundani stressed that developing local digital infrastructure and AI tools is crucial for safeguarding national data and ensuring African participation in the global technological landscape.
- newsday

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