The impact of COVID-19 on cybersecurity awareness-raising and mindset in the southern African development community (SADC)

At the beginning of 2020, the world came to a stand-still when governments across the globe decided to enter states of ‘emergency’ or ‘disaster’ over the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic. The responses to the pandemic included stringent movement restrictions and hygiene advice preventing face-to-face interactions. As a result, many activities, including schooling, working, and shopping were moved online, drastically increasing exposure to cyber threats and risks. It is unclear if and how the rapid increase in internet use corresponded to an improvement in cybersecurity mindset development in countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). This paper explores the effect of the increase in digital technology usage due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on the relationship between cybersecurity awareness-raising initiatives and the development of higher levels of cybersecurity mindset in Botswana, Lesotho, and Malawi. These three countries have a similar cybersecurity footprint and an average cybersecurity capacity level for the region. The research applies a comparative multiple case study approach relying on a thematic review of the literature and related documents, supported by in-depth interviews with purposefully selected key informants from the three selected SADC countries. Findings suggest that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, awareness-raising programs have gained some momentum in our selected countries, but the cybersecurity mindset has not improved. That was attributed to low frequency and poor quality of campaigns added to the lack of training, education and lived experience. The paper highlights the need to increase the frequency and improve the quality of programmes, for greater impact on the development of local cybersecurity mindsets.