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Kenya: All mobile users to be assigned IP addresses in bid to curb growing cyber crime
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Mobile operators have been ordered to allocate unique numbers, Internet protocol (IP) addresses, to all phones using their network to curb spread of abusive, inciting, fraudulent messages and the growing menace of cyber crime.
This will go hand in hand with the ongoing registration of SIM Cards whose deadline is set at end of this month.
The identification efforts are being intensified to avoid any violence incidences carried through mobile and internet tools in the coming general elections.
The regulator, Communiction Commision of Kenya (CCK) and the Ministry of Information yesterday said Mobile operators are exposing themselves to litigation by ignoring the IP address procedure.
Currently the operators buy the IP Numbers to allocate to phones in bundles, in effort to cut costs, but now they will be required to have unique number for each cellphone or tablet.
“Operators have been dilly-dallying on this, but we will have a deadline soon,” said CCK director of information technology, Michael Katundu.
The phone information will be linked to other government databases to be used to combat incidences of hate speech and cyber crime since they will be able to trace the users.
The CCK said the procedures will also be extended to cyber cafes where customers will be required to produce identification before using any computer.
Kenya a country with a population of 41 million has over 25 million mobile phone users and the use of tablets is growing rapidly.
Source: The Star