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| Fred Matiangi |
Amid revelations that
Kenya could lose up to US$23 million this year through cybercrime, the
Kenyan government has announced its support for the ratification of the African Union (AU) convention on the
establishment of a credible legal framework for cybersecurity in
Africa.
According to cybercrime statistics released by Fred
Matiangi, the Kenyan cabinet secretary for information and communication
technology (ICT), the banking industry is the most affected by
cybercrime.
As more Africans use the Internet for their banking needs,
the number of fraudsters eyeing
online financial transactions has also multiplied. The Kenyan government
statistics indicate that on a daily basis, close to 1,000 Kenyans fall victim to Internet fraud.
Meanwhile, Africa's heads of state are expected to meet in
January next year to discuss the ratification of the AU convention
on the establishment of a legal framework for cybersecurity in the
region. The AU convention on the establishment of the legal framework
seeks to harmonize African legislation related to e-commerce,
personal data protection and cybercrime control.
Two months ago, the Kenyan government announced it would
assign each person using the Internet a virtual identity in a bid to curb
the risingtide of cybercrime.
Through the Kenya ICT Board, the government said it would soon establish
a public key infrastructure, which will allocate virtual identities to Internet users.
The publicity surrounding the region's cybercrime is raising
fears that Africa may face a slowdown in international investment
in the telecom as well as the financial sectors. In Southern
Africa, Zambia,
Zimbabwe and South Africa have in particular been
experiencing an increase in mobile and Internet banking fraud, resulting in
millions of dollars in losses.
A number of local and international banks in Zambia and
South Africa have reported phishing attacks on their Internet banking
systems, and in some cases they have
been forced to temporarily close branches to protect customers' money.
Officials in these countries have been warning banks that
they should not compromise on
security in light of the increased risks.
In East Africa, Kenya has been hit the hardest while in West
Africa, Nigeria and Ghana have suffered the most attacks.
Africa is experiencing an explosion of mobile money services
as banks and mobile service
providers compete for customers who would otherwise not have a bank account. This has increased phishing
activities on unsuspecting customers, in an effort to lure them to fake
sites.
Banks in the region are encouraged by the growing mobile
customer base to launch innovative payment options to reach millions
of the so-called "unbanked." But that is putting citizens
more at risk of cybercrime. In South Africa, there are more than 13 million
unbanked people while in Zambia, 60 percent of the population is
currently unbanked.
The problem has further been
compounded by the fact that very few banks in the region that provide Internet
banking services are also able to offer security software to curb cybersecurity
attacks.
"The AU convention will help
move faster the harmonization of cyberlaws and give authority to countries to
arrest and prosecute cybercriminals regardless of where the offense was
committed. This will help in the fight against cybercrime," said Edith
Mwale, telecom analyst at Africa Center for ICT Development.
Cybercrime in the region is said to
have increased following the lowering of bandwidth and connectivity costs as
mobile service providers and international cables compete for customers. Over
the past few years, African has been trying to harmonize cyberlaws to deal with
cross-border criminals by allowing member countries to prosecute criminals
wherever a crime is committed in the region. However, progress has been slow in
several countries.
Computerworld Singapore
Computerworld Singapore
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