The Cybersecurity Awareness Paradox in Zimbabwe: How Superficial Awareness Amplifies National Risk

The Digital Leap and the Hidden Vulnerability

Zimbabwe’s rapid digital transformation across finance, health, and education has brought significant economic potential , but it has also exposed the nation to a complex and evolving cyber threat landscape. The country’s low global ranking—129th out of 160 on the National Cyber-Security Index (NCSI) —reflects fundamental deficiencies in defensive capabilities.

While the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) has introduced key legislation like the Cyber and Data Protection Act (CDPA) of 2021 and conducts events such as Cyber Security Awareness Month , a critical flaw exists in the execution of these initiatives. This flaw creates what is termed the Cyber Awareness Paradox: state and organizational efforts to raise awareness, when poorly executed or focused solely on compliance, inadvertently provide threat actors with strategic intelligence, enabling them to enhance their methods and target the weakest link—the general public—to compromise high-value state assets.   

Gaps in Governance and Capacity

The foundation of Zimbabwe’s cyber defense is undermined by legislative criticism and an acute shortage of skilled personnel.

The Legal Framework and the Trust Deficit

The CDPA mandates crucial security safeguards, including requiring licensed data controllers to appoint Data Protection Officers (DPOs) and report data breaches to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) within 24 hours.

However, the Act has faced criticism from civil society for seemingly prioritizing state surveillance and "national security" interests over genuine citizen privacy and digital rights. The institutional design, which places the primary cybersecurity and data protection authority role under POTRAZ, the telecommunications regulator, raises concerns about the regulator’s independence. This perceived lack of independence and the focus on state security create a public trust deficit, making citizens less likely to openly participate in government-led awareness campaigns or report successful breaches.

The Acute Cybersecurity Skills Gap

A critical barrier to both robust national defense and effective awareness outreach is the severe shortage of specialized human capital. Industry analysis ranks limited technical skills as a top cybersecurity barrier, affecting 85.5% of surveyed experts. This "brain drain" of skilled personnel affects both the government and the private sector.   

The government’s difficulty in finding staff with advanced competencies means public awareness campaigns often default to generic, simplified, or outdated advice, failing to address sophisticated, modern threats. Furthermore, even educational institutions struggle, with some school heads reporting a lack of skilled ICT staff to teach computer studies and cybersecurity fundamentals.   

The Core Risk: Threat Amplification and Displacement

The general public—the civilian layer—remains the most easily exploited entry point into national systems. The failure of current awareness programs to adequately train this layer acts as an accelerant for cyber threats through two main mechanisms:

1. Amplification: When a national awareness campaign alerts threat actors (such as sophisticated state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat groups, e.g., OilRig targeting telecommunications ) to the specific defensive behaviors being taught, these adversaries adapt. They proactively strengthen their Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) to bypass the announced defenses. Thus, a basic awareness program intended to mitigate simple risks ends up amplifying the overall threat sophistication.   
2. Displacement: As organizations focus on technical hardening (e.g., better firewalls), but neglect effective behavioral training, the cost of a direct technical intrusion rises. Adversaries simply displace their attack vector to the path of least resistance: the human element. They leverage the low digital literacy among grassroots internet users through targeted social engineering (phishing, mobile money scams). This means the untrained civilian or employee becomes the mechanism—the ultimate threat vector—used by the hacker to breach government systems or Critical National Infrastructure (CNI).   

The domestic cybercrime data supports this displacement, showing high volumes of low-tech fraud. Between January and November 2023, the CID CCD N/Region investigated over 766 cases involving pyramid or investment scams, alongside instances of bank account, WhatsApp, and Facebook hacking.   

The Solution: Shifting to Behavioral Metrics

To overcome the Paradox, Zimbabwe must stop measuring compliance (like training attendance or completion rates) and start measuring tangible behavioral change and human risk reduction.

Measurable Behavioral Indicators (MBIs) for National Resilience

The focus must shift from knowing information to acting securely.Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) should be outcome-driven:

Strategic Recommendations for National Cyber Resilience

To address these systemic risks, Zimbabwe must adopt a multi-faceted approach focused on capacity, enforcement, and behavioral science.

1. Capacity Building and Talent Retention: The government must prioritize targeted training in advanced specializations such as incident response, forensics, and threat intelligence for public sector and CNI staff. Strategies should include fiscal incentives to retain skilled personnel and close the massive skills gap.   
2. Enforcement and Accountability: The perception that organizations can "pretend" to maintain awareness must be eliminated due to lax enforcement. POTRAZ must consistently apply the penalties stipulated in the CDPA, which can include fines up to Level 11 (approximately $5,000) or imprisonment for up to seven years for non-compliance with licensing regulations. 
3. Behavioral Outreach: Awareness must move beyond generic campaigns to be localized, contextualized, and based on behavioral science. Campaigns should utilize culturally relevant media and local languages, focusing explicitly on how to identify and report real-world Zimbabwean scam examples, such as mobile money fraud. The goal is to train citizens not just in knowledge, but in specific, measurable actions that reduce risk
4. International Cooperation and Threat Intelligence: Formalized collaboration with international partners should prioritize the exchange of current Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI). A well-resourced national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) or CSIRT is essential for coordinating proactive vulnerability detection and feeding localized threat indicators directly into public education materials, thereby effectively countering the adversaries’ adaptation (Amplification) strategies