Every time young minds unite for a shared goal that benefits the continent, that partnership is especially strong and successful. The Cybersecurity Education Initiative (CYSED), a youth-led non-profit organization that focuses on cybersecurity awareness, education, capacity building, and more, organized Africa CyberFest with the intention of achieving a goal: Tackling cybercrime in Africa with a youthful approach.
Moses Joshua, the Executive Director of CYSED, and Oluwatobi Ayodele, the Co-Founder of CYSED, brought together like-minded youths to form Africa CyberFest. The conference, which was previously known as The CyberStarters Conference―having two successful runs in the past years―was a two-day cybersecurity conference, taking it a scale higher than its predecessor.
The first day was a cybersecurity career fair, which was open to both newbies and professionals in cybersecurity. It featured lightning talks, a workshop session, and a panel session featuring cybersecurity experts and a senior professional HR, tailored to help newbies and professional learn how to navigate the cybersecurity field.
The conference’s main event took place on the second day and included keynote speeches, panel discussions, hacking demonstrations, goodwill messages, and a ton of other activities. Some of the side events were the Capture the Flag Competition, an escape room challenge, lock picking sets, and much more.
More than twenty-four eminent and seasoned professionals from various organizations, including the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity Expert Association for Ghana and Nigeria, and others, served as speakers for these sessions.
The premiere event was a huge success as it recorded about a thousand onsite attendees on both days and more than 300 attendees joining virtually on the Zoom platform, to which every one of them gave remarkable feedback about the conference.
Big kudos to the conveners, Joshua, Oluwatobi, and their amazing team of volunteers, for bringing this very successful initiative―despite being its pilot version―to the limelight, helping youths find their footing in cybersecurity, and joining the fight against cybercrime.
Africa CyberFest is the future of cybersecurity, and we look forward to more achievements from this forward-thinking organization and its youthful founders.
