Good Governance and Virtue in South Africa's Cyber Security Policy Implementation

Abstract

Good governance from an ethical perspective in cyberdefence policy has been seen in terms of duty and consequentialism. Yet the negotiated view of virtue ethics can also address how nation states mitigate the risks of a cyber attack to their national interests and to prepare for a cyber offence in response to an attack. A discourse analysis of the “0x Omar”-Israeli conflict of 2012, as reported in the Arabic and English media and on the Internet, is used to explore ethical issues that this case raises and to examine how the risks posed could be mitigated in relation to relevant elements of the South African cybersecurity policy framework. Questions raised include: At what point does the policy require a nation state to prepare for a cyber offence in response to a cyber attack? Ethically, how are such actions consistent with the principle of good governance?

Cybersecurity Policy and the Legislative Context of the Water and Wastewater Sector in South Africa

“…This might require a coordinated cybercrimes skills development collaboration programme with international stakeholders such as Interpol and similar others to help bridge the gaps in the short term. In addition to all the matters considered above relating to the national cybersecurity legislation and policy environment, there is another concern: It would appear that the national cybersecurity strategy is primarily more defensive [8], and thus retroactive, than offensive which requires proactiveness [96]. It is more passive and static than proactive.…”

“…In South Africa, the government gazetted the National Cybersecurity Policy Framework (NCPF) in 2015, which aimed at addressing cyber terrorism, cybercriminal activities, cyber vandalism, and cyber sabotage [8,9]. As the overarching national cybersecurity strategy of South Africa [9], the NCPF provides a governance process and guidelines to respond to cybersecurity threats and attacks against the country [8,9].…”

“…In South Africa, the government gazetted the National Cybersecurity Policy Framework (NCPF) in 2015, which aimed at addressing cyber terrorism, cybercriminal activities, cyber vandalism, and cyber sabotage [8,9]. As the overarching national cybersecurity strategy of South Africa [9], the NCPF provides a governance process and guidelines to respond to cybersecurity threats and attacks against the country [8,9]. In the cybersecurity domain, policies outline the objectives and limitations of a strategy [10] to provide for measures to be put in place for the protection, safeguarding, and resilience of assets [11].…”

A Post Publication Review of "Bullying in the Australian ICT workplace: the views of Australian ICT professionals"

“…Namely, I was acknowledged in the paper as having contributed to some of the data gathering for the research, and the authors of (Al-Saggaf & Ceric, 2017) are colleagues of mine. I have published with both previously (Al-Saggaf & Burmeister, 2012;Al-Saggaf, Burmeister, & Schwartz, 2017;Al-Saggaf, Burmeister, & Weckert, 2015;Burmeister, Phahlamohlaka, & Al-Saggaf, 2015;Vella, Burmeister, Ceric, & Barnden, 2016). …”

The Importance of Ethical Conduct by Penetration Testers in the Age of Breach Disclosure Laws.

“…On the one hand, nation state hackers act in the best interests of the country they are representing as part of cyber warfare and helping to keep the nation they represent safe through intelligence gathering. On the other hand, the targeted nation would consider the hack to be unauthorised and illegal (Burmeister, Phahlamohlaka and Al-Saggaf, 2015).…”