As far back as 2015 the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), acting on Cabinet approval, decided to embark on building a cyber defence capacity. Not much happened subsequently with a Parliamentary oversight committee last year hearing progress is limited.
Brigadier General Mafi Mgobozi, previously SANDF Corporate Communication director, heads up the fledgling Cyber Command. He told parliamentarians the Command is able to be proactive when responding to cyberattacks and can undertake threat analysis. This includes detection and identification of cyber threats; development of threat taxonomy to predict possible threats; monitor adversary trends and the same for supply chain emerging threats.
South Africa’s cyber defence capacity at SANDF level has three strategic goals – capability development; cyber security awareness, research and training and national as well as international co-ordination and collaboration according to the one-star’s presentation.
On the “challenges” front the Cyber Command, like much else in the SANDF, is hamstrung by a lack of funding. This means it is currently in limbo as far as own “suitable facilities” are concerned and is accommodated in “limited space” at Defence Intelligence (DI).
“Cyber Command is able to function, however, not optimally,” Mgobozi told parliamentarians.
A retired officer with experience in the command and management information sector told defenceWeb, on condition of anonymity, it is “difficult to speak about a Cyber Command when no-one seems to know how much and what of it actually exists”.
More forthcoming was Darren Olivier, African Defence Review (ADR) director, who said there was “a real need” for a Cyber Command-type structure in the SANDF.
“At the least it’s needed to co-ordinate information security efforts and build the skills needed for this new war domain, but it’s difficult to view the current approach positively given the time it taken and the unjustifiable secrecy surrounding it.
“To now we have no solid information on the unit’s intended budget or staffing and the only strategy documents revealed have been too high level to provide the necessary level of insight.
“It’s clear establishing a Cyber Command was always going to be an uphill battle, given it’s yet another unfunded mandate for the SANDF to fulfil,” he said adding: “It cannot be easily staffed either at a time where there’s a broad moratorium on new posts to bring in needed additional personnel”. This, Olivier maintains, will see Cyber Command take people from other parts of the SANDF already understaffed in high skill roles.
“If I were to speculate, I would say some of the secrecy is because there is not much to report because the level of ambition can’t be matched by available resourcing. Again the SANDF is its own worst enemy and should be bringing the public into its confidence and showing both the purpose of Cyber Command, the value it brings to the country as a whole, what actions are being taken to ensure it fulfils its mandate and what challenges are being faced, to generate public support for it,” he told defenceWeb.
