Project Overview:
Today Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) is almost being used in all aspects of lives. The technology expanded into banking, shopping, education, health care, social networking, water, electricity, flight bookings, security, transport and commerce. According to International Telecommunication Union (ITU), with the growing application and dependency on ICTS, the risks in terms of phishing attacks, compromised credentials, and human error-induced breaches, poorly managed smart gadgets and mobile devices are growing and this requires all stakeholders to have adequate capacity and knowledge to take appropriate actions. In Uganda, technology gender-based violence has taken a surge with the notable case being the one of Doctor Stella Nyanzi, a senior lecturer at Makerere University who was arrested in 2017 and remanded at Luzira Prison for calling President Museveni pairs of buttocks and penalised for committing an offense according to section 24 and 25 of the Computer Misuse Act of 2011. In addition, Uganda police cyber security report of 2017, indicated that 95 percent of cyber crimes cases and threats go un reported and only 4.4 percent cases were followed up and addressed to some extent because of limited experts and tools to be used. This is inline with the research report of Seriani Cyber threat Intelligence research team from Kenya whose reports indicate that most organisations in Uganda are ill equipped to deal with cyber threats. WOUGNET assesses capacity of University students in Uganda and tries to train more experts especially young women who join these organisations after studies as employees. As well creating awareness on the extent of digital security in Uganda to ensure that women and women rights organisations are safe when they go online and browse the internet. This effort requires multi-sectoral and international collaboration to ensure that the strategy, technical, legal and policy space is strengthened to be able to address the security matters of the Country. Objectives The current and future digital security challenges faced by women and women rights organizations in Uganda assessed to reduce vulnerability and unabated losses. Inclusion and online safety of women and women rights organizations promoted through capacity building to reduce attacks and fostering collaborations between the ICTs management and the policy makers in Uganda. Awareness on technology related violence against women and applicable laws and policies in Uganda raised.