“I Am Because We Are”: Developing and Nurturing an African Digital Security Culture

Type Working Paper
Title “I Am Because We Are”: Developing and Nurturing an African Digital Security Culture
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2014
URL https://www.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Group_CASED/Publikationen/ACCC-Final.pd​f
Abstract
Technical solutions fail if people experience difficulties using them. Sometimes these
difficulties force people to work around the security solutions in order to achieve legitimate
goals. Improving usability undoubtedly helps, but this has not improved the situation as much
as anticipated. In this paper we consider a variety of other reasons for non-uptake.
We argue that this situation can only be addressed by considering the person as a member of
the wider community and not as a solitary agent. This aligns with the traditional African
wisdom of Ubuntu: “I am because we are”. We propose improving the African Digital
Security Culture (ADSC): collective knowledge, common practices, and intuitive common
security and privacy behaviour, in a particular society. We suggest a set of approaches for
developing and sustaining ADSC in a society, for as members of a society we learn most
effectively from each other, not from books, the media or by carrying out searches using
search engines.

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