[kictanet] Have we failed the nation yet again?

[Bernard Kioko [Bernsoft Group]]

The question of course is..are we lacking the ICT solutions or are we NOT
using them..

 

Case in point - a blogger Robert Alai has become very popular with the
westgate incident just by using ICT solutions to gather information and
share it almost realtime - now many citizens are trusting his tweets more
than the official police/ministry tweets.

 

 

 

From: kictanet
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+bkioko=bernsoft.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf
Of Matunda Nyanchama
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2013 11:51 AM
To: bkioko at bernsoft.com
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Have we failed the nation yet again?

 

Friends

 

Methinks ICT could really, really help in such a situation as happened in
Westgate Mall, specifically with respect to preparedness. I am not privy to
tools our intelligence and security organizations are using so this is not
passing judgement. That said, for intelligence gathering, analysis,
investigation, etc. ICT can really help.

 

Example: if we have a suspect and the person's phone number, we can do a
whole lot with this: trace relationships from call data and how tightly
coupled  (some tools measure the volume of calls between entities as a
measure of this)  those relationships are. We can monitor, from the same
data, their call locations and roaming habits. And each call they make could
be a point of investigation perhaps leading to other suspects. Such
information can be used to disrupt their networks and activities. 

 

Almost all public facilities have CCTV data. One asks whether anyone ever
reviews this information for anything suspicious. My guess is this: the
killers must have been at the mall some time earlier in a reconnaissance
mission where they possibly mapped the place as part of their plan of
attack. CCTV images, I believe could potentially show such suspicious
activity despite the volume of people that frequent the mall. (BTW: many
malls use such images to thwart pilfering and shoplifting; they could flag
unusual activity as well if those that manage the service know what to look
for.)

 

There is more: how much does the security for the mall share with state
agencies such as the police/CID, NSIS, etc.? The need for seamless
integration of information sharing, analysis and action is extremely
pertinent. And I think ICT tools, applications and infrastructure can be
core to  this as part of preparedness.

 

After the post election violence a commission suggested better use of ICT to
gather, collate, analyze and act on information. I am not sure that the
security agencies went out there seeking/designing a coherent plan that
could avail information for their strategic decision-making. What seems to
have taken centre-stage is CCTV, which is only a component of a continuum
.... 

 

ICT can enable security agencies deploy their services more effectively and
efficiently. Take urban and rural crime, the nature of those crimes and
solutions thereof. It is possible that the kind of tactics you engage in
either of those scenarios would be different. By gathering information and
using that information appropriately one can be more particular/precise with
an attach plan.

 

As we mourn the dead, let's try and learn from that experience and how we
could have done better. The crime may be in our failure to learn from this
experience for better action/response tomorrow.

 

Shukrani.

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Matunda Nyanchama, PhD, CISSP; mnyanchama at aganoconsulting.com
Agano Consulting Inc.;   <http://www.aganoconsulting.com/>
http://www.aganoconsulting.com/; Twitter:
<http://twitter.com/#%21/nmatunda> nmatunda;  Skype: okiambe
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