Botswana CSIRT hosted the country's first National Cyber Drill from 24 to 27 February 2026 at Travel Lodge Gaborone, under the theme "Cyber Resilience in Action," to move national cyber preparedness from theory to practice. The drill responded to known weaknesses in web application security and limited skills in handling complex incidents such as ransomware, and brought together participants from government, regulators (BOCRA and Bank of Botswana), telecommunications operators, critical infrastructure bodies, academia, the private sector, and individuals.
It was officially opened by the Minister of Communications and Innovation, Mr. David Tshere, with a welcome from BOCRA Chief Executive Mr. Martin Mokgware and a keynote by Mr. Olivier Caleff, Chairperson of the FIRST Board of Directors, on the incident lifecycle and end-to-end response. The drill strengthened public-private coordination and trust, built practical incident-response skills, exposed gaps in web configurations and log monitoring across critical organizations, and set a baseline for future exercises while reinforcing Botswana CSIRT's role as national coordinator. It was recommended that the drill become an annual exercise, alongside stronger incident reporting to Botswana CSIRT, advanced training in forensics, malware analysis, and SOC operations, sector-specific drills, formal public-private partnerships, and a national threat intelligence-sharing platform.
