Recent attacks have targeted the Tunisian prime minister’s email account and the Ministry of Justice website, according to a report by allAfrica.
Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali is asking the country’s Constituent Assembly to hire cybersecurity experts at the Ministry of Interior to improve security of the government’s IT infrastructure.
"The whole security system is to be restructured in order to improve it. However, the final version is not clear yet", Haythem Elmir, an official at the National Agency for Computer Security, told allAfrica.
"We have been fighting cybercrime for the past five years. It is a constant battle," said Elmir. He explained that more backup and enhancement is needed as systems are becoming more vulnerable to sophisticated attacks.
However, Elmir feared that the process of improving Tunisia's electronic defenses might be politicized, especially as the Prime Ministry, Interior Ministry, and the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology had all recently attempted to intervene.
He warned that infighting over the control of internet security could be detrimental to the process of creating a more protected network. "Everyone must consider the country's best interests as a priority," he stated.
The interim government was established last year after the ouster of longtime President El Abindine Ben Al, the first Arab government to fall in the Arab Spring revolt.