Governance • Risk • Compliance • AI
Senegal's draft law: securing vital networks and mandating cyber-resilience
An IT outage in the banking or energy sector can paralyse the national economy. The law is designed to guarantee operational continuity.
Shielding critical data belonging to the state and to Senegalese citizens from espionage, ransomware and external tampering.
Formal identification of operators of vital importance (banking, energy, telecoms, health, transport) that fall under regulation.
A duty to apply rigorous security standards: periodic information security audits, zero-trust architectures and identity management.
Mandatory notification of any security incident or data breach to the national authorities (ANC / Senegal CSIRT).
Operators must obtain prior security certification for any new information system of vital importance.
Heavy fines and suspension of operations where the mandated security rules are plainly breached.
Executive committees, CISOs and DPOs are directly involved in approving security policies and ensuring compliance.
A legal duty to test business continuity and disaster recovery plans at least once a year.
Regular audits by state-accredited firms to verify the real cyber maturity of vital operators.
Direct alignment with the revised ECOWAS Supplementary Act on cybersecurity and critical infrastructure.
Implementing the principles of the African Union Convention on cybersecurity and data protection.
Protecting cross-border data flows to offer international investors a trusted environment.
Linking national CSIRTs so indicators of compromise are shared in real time and attacks stop spreading.
Identify vital assets and sensitive databases, and audit every dependency on IT subcontractors.
Launch external and internal penetration tests, tighten privileged access management (PAM) and formalise security policies.
Define a clear emergency escalation procedure so the national CSIRT can be alerted within 72 hours of an incident.
"Cybersecurity for critical infrastructure is no longer a technical recommendation: it is a sovereignty imperative and a legal duty for Senegal's resilience."
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