Building a Regional ISAC for West Africa that Works: Governance, Tools and Community Maturity
summary
A two‑year project builds a regional ISAC across 12 ECOWAS countries (Nigeria to Cabo Verde) using SIM3 maturity roadmap and the FIRST CSIRT Services Framework to define concrete services, governance and a ministerial charter requiring signatures from all 12 nations. A dedicated MISP instance is deployed for operational exchange, four workshops with tabletop and CyberBastion simulations validate workflows, and a focal‑point membership model shifts responsibility to regional teams. Progress is ongoing to 2027; main blockers are legal permissions for sharing and building interpersonal trust.
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chapters (13)
- 0:00Regional ISAC for West Africa intro
- 2:30CERT, ISAC, and team types
- 8:35National incident management challenges
- 12:13Why regional CERTs fail
- 14:41Echoas cybersecurity framework request
- 17:32Regional ISAC project approach
- 21:01Barriers to info sharing in West Africa
- 24:10ISAC tools and processes
- 27:03Trust via exercises and leadership
- 30:18Project lessons learned
- 33:51Transition to West African teams
- 34:34Why regional ISAC works
- 36:38Q&A on success criteria
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