Monday 26 February 2024: under a new capacity building partnership with the UK Government, over the next week the Ministry of Communications (MoC) will undertake a national review of Fiji’s cyber capacity with assistance from experts from the Oceania Cyber Security Centre (OCSC) in preparation for the forthcoming national cybersecurity strategy. Following the success of the inaugural Pacific Cyber Capacity Building and Coordination Conference (P4C) in Nadi in 2023, this partnership marks a milestone on cyber cooperation between the three stakeholders and a pivotal moment in enhancing Fiji’s cyber defense framework.
In support of the recommendations from the P4C Outcomes Report, the review has been codesigned to ensure that is addresses the local context and is aligned with existing consultations to minimalize duplication. Furthermore, it will be used to inform and enhance existing initiatives related to the national cyber strategy, digital transformation program, and critical infrastructure protection classification process.
The Cyber Security Capacity Maturity Model for Nations (CMM) is a globally recognised cyber maturity model develop by the Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre (GCSCC) at the University of Oxford and has been deployed more than 130 times in 90 nations around the world. The review provides a holistic assessment of each countries national capacity to manage complex cyber risks and identifies areas for improvement. Fiji undertook its first CMM review in 2015 as one of the world’s first countries to use the model. A lot of progress has been made in bolstering Fiji’s cyber capabilities since then. A new review will assist the MoC to evaluate this progress and inform the governments future cyber development priorities.
Undertaken by a specialist’s research team from the OCSC, the CMM will engage with local decision makers and technical experts from a broad spectrum of the government, civil society, and the private sector to ensure that a diverse range of viewpoints are included in the process. Participants will be separated into several focus groups and asked to share their knowledge and understanding of the local cyber context across a range of different portfolios and industries. Over the next four months the findings will be developed into a detailed report by OCSC which will then be handed to MoC.
Through this project, the MoC, UK Government and OCSC are taking meaningful steps to implement the changes asked for by Pacific delegates at the 2023 P4C. Closer international stakeholder collaboration, addressing the identified priorities of Pacific peoples, reducing duplication, and making cyber capacity building more sustainable are all recommendations of the PBP P4C Outcomes Report that the CMM will help address.
For more information on the PBP P4C Outcomes Report, please visit:
https://pacificcyberconference.com/report
