Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited (BTC) hosted the Cloud Talks webinar themed “The Importance of Data Protection in the Digital World”. The webinar was based on storing data on the Cloud and the recently passed Data Protection Act. Speaking on the topic “Data Protection: Botswana”, the Deputy Permanent Secretary – Information Communications Technology (ICT) at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Mr Cecil Masiga stated that data protection is the legislative framework for ensuring the privacy of individuals in relation to how their personal data is maintained transmitted and stored. He explained that “data protection laws regulate the protection of personal data by governmental and non-governmental organizations and that every entity that handles customers’ personal information must familiarize themselves with this piece of legislation as compliance is mandatory”.

Delivering the opening remarks, BTC Chief Operations Officer, Mr. Aldrin Sivako stated that the purpose of the webinar was to discuss and share ideas on Cloud and the importance of Data Protection. He further said, “Data protection is another key subject that is crucial in our times as countries and enterprises are in the race to pursue digital transformation initiatives in order to remain relevant and resilient into the future, while respecting the laws of the countries where they operate especially laws relating to protection of personal data”.  

Mr Sivako explained that Covid-19 has escalated the rise in the usage of the internet, as more social and economic activities take place online and as a result the importance of privacy and data protection is increasingly recognized. He added that  “of equal concern is the collection, use and sharing of personal information to third parties without notice or consent of consumers”. He however stated that the  enactment of the Data Protection Act and implementation of the cybersecurity strategy will go a long way in ensuring that as a country and enterprises operating within Botswana, have confidence that their businesses and customer data is safe and secure from exploitation for gain or abuse by third parties through unauthorized access. 

BTC Chief Operations Officer stated that BTC has invested in cloud solutions to facilitate its customers who have sensitive data that needs to be kept within the country. He explained that the BTC cloud infrastructure is elastic from storage and processing capacity, and it is currently used by several clients both in the private and public sector. “The Sentlhaga Data Centre has secure cloud services environment where sensitive data is kept and protected” he said. Through this facility, customers can safely enjoy the internet and have access to their data knowing that their data is safe within the country and is hosted in a facility that has robust security. He added that testament to this statement, Fortinet, a leading global security solutions provider, recently recognized BTC for its sterling performance in offering security solutions adding that “ BTC received three (3) prestigious awards at the Africa Virtual Security Day: In the Three Categories- 1). Best Growth of the Year 2020, 2). Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) Partner of the Year 2020, and 3). Most Certified Partner of the Year 2020 in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region”. 

Giving a presentation on The Impact of Data Protection Act on Cloud Services, BTC Legal Services Manager, Ms. Olivia Seneo Lamance stated that “with the introduction of the Data Protection Act, big organizations and small businesses alike need to ensure that their systems are compliant with the Data Protection Legislation, adding that processing and storage of personal information needs to comply with requirements of the Act”.  She added that according to the Data Protection Act, companies need to obtain consent to store or process personal information outside of Botswana. This consent needs to be given at the time the data is gathered. This means that the data controller needs to know where the data is always stored  in order to obtain the right type of consent when gathering data. 

The BTC Sentlhaga Data Centre Manager, Mr Mompoloki Gaotlolwe presented on “Digital products by BTC in the Data Protection Era”. He implored businesses to take up BTC Cloud Business Solutions as BTC has a tier II Certified Data Centre that offers in-country data storage, reliable direct connectivity and has skilled resources. He says by so doing, the customer will be handing over responsibility to BTC to provide a secure cloud environment. However, he cautioned that the responsibility will be shared between BTC and the customer, where BTC will provide security of the cloud covering software and hardware (BTC Global infrastructure) while the customer will be responsible for security in the cloud, that is, they will be responsible for customer data, who they give access to into their network, operating system, firewall configurations etc. 

BTC software partners, Microsoft also shared a presentation on “How Microsoft supports compliance with Botswana Data Protection Regulations”. Microsoft’s Lead Attorney, Emerging Markets  Ms. Otilia Phiri stated that Microsoft specifically undertakes and agrees with its customers to only process personal information under authority of its customer. Microsoft also contractually commits not to disclose personal information unless legally compelled to do so. She stated that Microsoft has a compliance Manager dashboard that is in-built into Microsoft 365 that checks compliance against regulations and gives a compliance score. Using the Data Protection Act of Botswana, they demonstrated how the compliance manager is set up to end up with an overall compliance score for adherence to the regulation. 

As part of the Cloud Talk webinar, BTC will be offering customers a 60 days free access to BTC Cloud services.  For the 60 days free access customers are encouraged to contact sales@btc.bw to experience the cloud services.