Words: Hastings Ndebvu
In an effort to support the improvement of research and education standards across the African continent, UbuntuNet Alliance in partnership with the Internet Society (ISOC), has organised a three-week Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) online training workshop for network engineers from the UbuntuNet Alliance membership region.
The workshop, to be facilitated by experts from ISOC, will be held through daily one-hour sessions starting from 13-31 July 2020.
MANRS is an initiative to improve the security and resilience of the Internet’s global routing system by encouraging networks to implement well-established industry best practices and technological solutions that can address common threats.
Over 16 engineers from the UbuntuNet Alliance membership region are expected to attend the training which will see the trainees installing MANRS actions in an online lab.
UbuntuNet Alliance CEO, Dr. Matthews Mtumbuka commended ISOC for their collaboration and emphasized on the importance of the training especially during this period when COVID-19 has restricted the possibilities of face to-face hands-on workshops.
The MANRS workshop is one of the series of interventions which UbuntuNet Alliance, an implementing partner of the AfricaConnect3 project, is currently employing to support NRENs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
UbuntuNet Alliance has, in the recent past, been holding webinars targeting NREN engineers and university lecturers with the aim of helping NRENs and universities react to the effects of COVID-19 on research and education collaboration.