Global Encryption Day Somalia 2026: Trust, Privacy, and Security in a Connected Somalia
TBD
Event Overview
Every year on 21 October, people around the world mark Global Encryption Day - a global campaign to protect and celebrate strong end-to-end encryption as a building block of a safe, trustworthy internet. On Wednesday, 21 October 2026, ISOC Somalia Chapter is bringing that conversation to Somalia for the first time since the Chapter's 2025 rejuvenation.
Somalia is at a turning point where encryption stops being an abstract technical word and becomes something that shapes daily life. Most of us bank, send money, and stay in touch through EVC Plus, ZAAD, WhatsApp, and Telegram. At the same time, the National Communications Authority has just published two new national frameworks, the National Cybersecurity Compliance Framework and the National Cybersecurity Risk Management Framework, requiring telecom operators and banks to build encryption into how they protect Somali data. Encryption is being written into Somali law right now, and most of us have never had a public conversation about what that actually means for us.
Global Encryption Day Somalia 2026 is that conversation. Join civil society organizations, journalists, telecom engineers, government officials, students, and technologists for a hybrid, one-day forum on 21 October 2026 - in person in Mogadishu, with remote participation open to the rest of the country and the diaspora. The day includes a plain-language keynote on what encryption is and why it matters, panel discussions bringing together the National Communications Authority, the Ministry of Communications and Technology, telecom operators, and journalists, and a hands-on Digital Safety Clinic where you'll leave having set up encrypted messaging and device security on your own phone.
Whether you work in civil society, journalism, government, telecom, or you're simply someone who uses mobile money and wants to understand what's changing, this event is for you.
Conducted in Somali. Free and open to the public, with limited invited seats for the policy panel and the clinic's journalist/human rights defender track.