Government has stressed that cybersecurity must be built into digital services from the beginning as the country expands efforts to bring government services closer to citizens through their mobile phones.
Minister of Information, Communication and Technology Savannah Maziya said government could not ask citizens to provide personal information through digital platforms without ensuring that their information was protected.
She was speaking yesterday at the opening of the 2026 Eswatini Government in Your Hand (GIYH) Mobile Governance Initiative Workshop at Mountain View Hotel.
Maziya said digital transformation was about more than applications, systems and infrastructure, as it was meant to improve the experience of citizens accessing government services.
She said the initiative was important for citizens who wanted to access services without travelling long distances, young people applying for opportunities using their mobile phones and business owners who needed to interact with government quickly and conveniently.
However, she said government had a responsibility to ensure that digital platforms were reliable, secure and easy to use.
“We cannot ask people to provide their personal information through digital platforms without ensuring that this information is protected. We cannot introduce applications without making sure that they are reliable, secure and easy to use,” Maziya said.
The minister said the establishment of the Government Mobile App Testing Lab, supported by the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and International Integrated Systems Inc., was an investment in Eswatini’s digital future.
She said the lab should become more than infrastructure and equipment, but a centre for building a culture of quality, security and excellence in the development of government applications.
According to Maziya, government applications should be properly tested and their weaknesses identified and addressed before they reached citizens.
“We should be able to find the problem before the citizen finds it,” she said.
She added that testing was not about finding fault with developers, but about helping them build better and more secure digital solutions.
Maziya said cybersecurity could no longer remain the responsibility of ICT departments alone. As more government services move online, she said cybersecurity had become a national development issue, requiring government and the wider technology sector to work together to protect citizens’ information and maintain public confidence.
She also encouraged local developers, innovators and technology entrepreneurs to use the workshop to learn from international experts and strengthen their skills.
She urged government institutions to stop treating security as something considered after an application had already been developed. Instead, she said security should form part of the development process from the beginning, supported by common standards, proper testing and feedback from citizens who would use the services.
Maziya said government could not achieve its digital transformation goals alone and needed partnerships with innovators, academia, international partners and other institutions.
The engagement will also continue at the Eswatini International Trade Fair, where partners are expected to conduct a cybersecurity and mobile application testing workshop for young people, developers and innovators.
“As we move forward, let us not focus on digitising government; let us focus on improving the experience of government,” she said.
‘Eswatini not main cyber target yet’
The country may not currently be a main target for major cyber attackers, but it should use the opportunity to strengthen its cyber defences before a serious attack occurs.
This was said by International Integrated Systems Inc. (IISI) Director for the International Division Jerry Wang during a presentation on cybersecurity and cyber resilience.
Wang said it was important for Eswatini to first identify the cyber threats that posed the greatest risk to the country.
He said these could include phishing, ransomware, internal threats and other forms of cyber attacks.
“What is the major threat or cybersecurity risk to you? Is it a hacker, ransomware, phishing mail or internally? You have to identify that,” he said.
Wang said the country was not currently a main target for some of the organisations carrying out cyber attacks.
He, however, said this should not result in the country relaxing its efforts to improve cybersecurity.
“For the Eswatini government, which one is the highest? We can identify. It could be phishing, it could be ransomware, I do not know, but because we are not the main target for those organisations,” he said.
He said identifying the main threats facing Eswatini would help the country decide which areas should be prioritised when building its cyber defences.
Wang said cybersecurity should not only focus on putting up firewalls, but should also include the ability to detect, monitor and respond quickly when an attack occurs.
He said organisations should have clear plans and pre-authorised procedures to deal with cyber incidents because there might not be enough time to wait for approval once an attack is underway.
Wang said the growing use of technology also meant that machines could be used to protect systems from attacks carried out using technology.
He said the country should also build systems that can identify unusual activity instead of relying only on people to monitor computer systems around the clock.
Such systems, he said, could help identify suspicious behaviour, including unusual use of administrative accounts or activity taking place outside normal working hours.
Wang said building a strong cybersecurity system would require time and investment.
“Not to say next year everything will be ready. That is a huge investment, but we have to do it one by one,” he said.
Wang proposed the future development of a national cybersecurity centre focusing on three main areas: technical operations, capacity building and governance.
He said the technical side could include monitoring networks and testing systems before they were launched, while capacity building could focus on cybersecurity awareness for government employees and the public, as well as technical and advanced training for ICT security personnel.
The governance side, he said, would deal with policies and preparedness.
