Politics and policy
The Communications Authority of Kenya director-general Francis Wangusi. PHOTO | FILE
By OKUTTAH MARK, mokuttah@ke.nationmedia.com
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) is
drafting regulations that will soon require anyone accessing wireless
Internet (Wi-Fi) through public hot spots to register their devices with
the service provider, as part of government efforts to crack down on
cybercrime.
Mobile devices will be assigned unique public Internet
Protocol (IP) addresses and organisations offering public Wi-Fi will be
required to give each gadget – including mobile phones and tablets –
unique IP addresses to ease identification of users.
CA director-general Francis Wangusi on Tuesday said
the regulation will help track and monitor user activity on mobile
devices and supplement the registration of mobile phone SIM cards.
“Anybody accessing a public Wi-Fi will be required
to register his or her device with the provider. Right now it is very
difficult to trace anyone using public Wi-Fi. This has given criminals
an avenue to conduct their activities,” said Mr Wangusi in an
interview.
Internet services providers will also be expected
to ensure that any user who accesses their network has registered using
their identification documents or risk litigation for cybercrimes
committed by unregistered users.
Currently those accessing the Internet using modems
or private networks have traceable SIM cards for the modems or
contractual agreement with providers.
The CA’s announcement comes at a time when most
entertainment joints are using free Wi-Fi connectivity to attract
customers to their outlets.
CA said it is also working on a memorandum of
understanding with the registrar of companies that will also see anyone
registering a company or business in Kenya compelled to acquire a dot ke
(.ke) domain address.
The CA board cited fighting cybercrime as one of
the priority tasks for Mr Wangusi who was last week handed a fresh
four-year term as the regulatory agency’s boss.
The government has moved a lot of its services
online while financial institutions are also adopting technology in
their operations to improve efficiency.
The registration of companies or businesses is
currently not inter-linked to the assigning of Internet domains. The
attorney-general’s office handles business registration while the Kenya
Network Information Centre (Kenic) – a non-profit organisation –
administers the Internet addresses system.
Mr Wangusi, however, said that a new licensing
regime for Kenic will require it to collaborate with the registrar of
companies and businesses to ensure that those seeking new registrations
also acquire the .ke domain.
Kenic had sold 32,508 .ke names as at June 2014.
South Africa’s .za leads African countries with more than a million
domains. The low uptake of the .ke domain saw Kenic slash the retail
prices by 66.7 per cent to Sh1,000 in March in a bid to encourage uptake
by more Kenyan firms.
Kenic had previously been charging Sh3,000 for the
.ke domain while prices for the .com, .net and .info averaged between
Sh500 and Sh2,000.
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