On Thursday, 8 October, RISA took part in the launch of the 2026 Tekana Online campaign organized by the National Cyber Security Authority (NCSA).  It is a month-long campaign under the theme "Be Cyber Smart!" that raises awareness on online safety, strengthens cybersecurity resilience across institutions, and encourages young people to explore careers in cybersecurity.

Speaking on the launch panel, RISA's Chief Operations & Strategy Officer, Innocent Asiimwe Mudenge, shared the lessons RISA has learned from building and upskilling the cybersecurity workforce. He stressed that capacity building must reach every tier of an organisation, from non-IT staff to core technical teams, and that cybersecurity must be a management commitment, with leaders ensuring the right people, processes and governance are in place. He added that a sustainable national talent pipeline must be continuously developed, that measurement should shift from outputs to outcomes, and that institutions must prepare for AI-related cyber threats.

RISA is putting these lessons into practice. Under the Rwanda Digital Acceleration Project, RISA, together with NCSA, organised hands-on Red Team and Blue Team simulation training for more than 30 cybersecurity professionals in two cohorts between 14 September and 9 October 2026 at the CyberHub, University of Rwanda's College of Science and Technology Campus.

Participants practiced realistic attack and defense scenarios in a controlled environment, from SOC operations and threat hunting to incident response and vulnerability assessment. RISA also trained system administrators and local trainers, so Rwanda can sustain simulation-based cybersecurity training beyond the project.