ANTIC, stakeholders concert to consolidate Cameroon’s digital sovereignty.

This was during the 5th edition of the National DNS Forum in Douala. The three-day event, from December 8 to 10, assembled 95 participants drawn from public administrations, registrars, internet access providers, hosting companies and sector experts. 

It was under the theme: “DNS and Digital Sovereignty: Building a Secure and Trusted Internet with the .cm Domain”. The forum is taking place barely eight months after Cameroon attained a major milestone in its digital transition.

It should be recalled that on April 8, 2025, ANTIC successfully signed the “.cm” country code top-level domain with Domain Name System Security Extensions, DNSSEC, a suite of security protocols that adds cryptographic signatures to DNS data, securing it against spoofing, redirection, and website impersonation.

The achievement, it was said, places Cameroon among a handful of African countries with a fully DNSSEC-protected national domain, giving users greater trust and authenticity when accessing websites ending with “.cm”.

Despite the progress, the adoption of DNSSEC validation across the national ecosystem remains uneven. 

Operators such as MTN and CAMTEL are significantly advanced, with validation levels of 99.75 percent and 73.52 percent respectively, while others are still at zero. 

ANTIC has warned that this disparity leaves millions of internet users exposed to misconfigurations and hijacking attacks capable of redirecting traffic, intercepting communications or interrupting access to essential digital services.

It is against this backdrop that the agency is pressing for stronger collaboration among operators, service providers and public institutions.

Groundwork to reach 98% DNSSEC validation

Speaking at the opening of the forum, ANTIC Director General, Prof. Ebot Ebot Enaw, said the gathering aims to lay the groundwork for Cameroon to reach 98 percent DNSSEC validation and full deployment of routing security infrastructure by mid-2026.

Building on the gains made with DNSSEC, ANTIC is now turning its attention to routing security through Resource Public Key Infrastructure, RPKI. 

The mechanism is designed to prevent route hijacking, a practice where a network falsely claims ownership of internet address blocks, enabling it to divert or block traffic. 

Experts note that, although routing forms the backbone of all online transactions, global RPKI adoption still stands at just 27 percent, with half of internet address space still unprotected. Cameroon, too, is still at the early stages of RPKI deployment.

“Every transaction you do online goes through the DNS, but at conception there was no embedded security, making it easy to redirect users to fake websites,” Honlue Musa Stephen, AFRINIC’s Project Manager, explained.

He said signing the domain with DNSSEC and securing routing with RPKI are necessary steps to protect users from interception and impersonation. 

He equally lamented that many Cameroonians continue to rely on foreign domains and hosting platforms because they are unaware of the importance of local digital identity.

The forum is therefore doubling as a sensitisation platform aimed at encouraging internet operators to promote the .cm domain. 

Musa observed that registrars are not doing enough to educate clients on the benefits of local domains, stressing that stronger engagement is needed to boost uptake and strengthen the country’s digital footprint. 

Experts also noted that data hosted locally is safer and gives users easier access to information about their server accounts than foreign hosting systems.

By the end of the deliberations, ANTIC expects all stakeholders to translate discussions into concrete operational action. 

The agency insists that a secure and trusted .cm space can only be achieved if telecommunications operators and internet service providers fully implement DNSSEC validation and roll out RPKI across their networks. 

Achieving the mid-2026 targets, officials said, would position Cameroon as one of Africa’s leaders in DNS and routing security. The experts said the broader goal is to guarantee a safer, more resilient national internet infrastructure. 

They said for students relying on online resources, business owners engaged in e-commerce, public institutions offering digital services and ordinary citizens browsing the web, the stakes are high. 

Securing the DNS and routing systems, experts argue, will shield users from fake sites, misdirected traffic, eavesdropping risks and service interruptions, strengthening trust in Cameroon’s digital ecosystem.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3650 of Tuesday December 09, 2025