LOS ANGELES - Building on the success of the first workshop held in Nairobi, Kenya in January 2017, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Under Served Regions and Public Safety Working Groups announced their collaboration with the ZA Domain Name Authority (.ZADNA) on the second law enforcement agencies capacity development workshop this month from 23rd-24th June 2017 taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa. With cyber security issues becoming a growing concern for Africa it is important that African Law Enforcement and consumer protection Agencies are involved in various Internet governance processes.

According to ICANN, the underlying theme of this series of workshops is to harness the potential of African governments for participation in the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) policy processes.

The workshop aims to continue to raise awareness amongst the joining African law enforcement community, particularly from our host country South Africa, on how to participate in ICANN and engage effectively in the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and ICANN policy making. A roundtable with ICANN community and industry will focus on collaboration around security, stability and resiliency of the Internet and a half day will be devoted to the Africa Convention on Cybersecurity and Data Protection.

A range of topics will be covered:

• Introduction to ICANN's mission and multistakeholder bottom-up policy development model

• Introduction to the GAC: role, organization and membership

• Introduction to the PSWG: mandate and work plan

• Definition of Abuse of the DNS that can be addressed through ICANN's processes and contracts

• Mitigation of DNS Abuse: the role and obligations of contracted parties

• Mitigation of DNS Abuse: the role and tools of ICANN's Security Stability and Resiliency Team

• How Law Enforcement and consumer protection agencies should engage with ICANN

• Areas of collaboration with other stakeholders (industry, technical community, RIRs, among others)

• Discussion on WHOIS and related storage and retention of personal data;

Potential implications of European Data Protection legislation (GPDR) and African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection

The African Law Enforcement Capacity Building Workshop will provide an opportunity to share experiences on issues of DNS abuse, security, stability and resiliency with the South African Police Services, African Heads of Cybercrime units, Regional Economic Communities, the African Union as well as other representatives from governments and industry.

It will also provide an opportunity to share experiences, best practices, and lessons learnt with other agencies from a wide range of countries during the ICANN, GAC, PSWG sessions taking place the following week at ICANN's 59th public meeting in Johannesburg from 27th-29th June 2017.

The workshop is supported by the Government Engagement Department at ICANN in collaboration with ICANN's Global Stakeholder Engagement (GSE), Security, Stability and Resiliency (SSR), Multistakeholder Strategy and Strategic Initiatives (MSSI) and Compliance teams, as well as the ZADNA.

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address into your computer or other device – a name or a number. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation and a community with participants from all over the world.