The Judiciary and the National Assembly have crucial roles to play in addressing the many security challenges confronting cyberspace. The growth in the use and sophistication of emerging technologies is accompanied by inherent challenges, including threats to national security, cyberspace operations, citizens’ data and national critical infrastructure. This demonstrates the real need for the development of robust legal and regulatory frameworks to allow a proactive approach to confronting and curtailing these threats.

In the NCPS 21 the government commits to improving and updating federal and state laws to combat cybercrime and enhance the capacity of the nation to address cyber incidents and protect national cyberspace. The NCPS 21 states that implementation of the strategy shall support the amendments of the existing Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015, and shall ensure the harmonisation of provisions in other legislation relating to e-business, online consumer protection and criminal databases. Stated priorities include developing the necessary framework for the gathering, use and validation of electronic and digital evidence in investigations and prosecution processes, as well as the enactment of data protection legislation to cover data protection and privacy matters. Further, the strategy will boost efforts to promote online child and gender protection.

A major focus will be to develop the capacities of the judiciary to prosecute and adjudicate on cybercrime and the law enforcement community to investigate cybercrime and handle digital evidence. The strategy will support the development of a comprehensive set of training programs to educate lawyers, judges, prosecutors, forensic investigators and other law enforcement officials and specialists. The strategy also aspires to support the establishment of the National Digital Forensics Laboratory to produce the necessary facilities for digital forensics investigation and intelligence gathering on cyber related issues.