{"id":3118,"date":"2019-06-17T10:00:58","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T10:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=3118"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:21","slug":"cyber-crimes-take-toll-on-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/06\/17\/cyber-crimes-take-toll-on-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyber-Crimes Take Toll On Sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Imagine walking into your favourite hotel for the night, due to modern technology you decide to pay with your credit card but when swiped it declines and the receptionists gracefully tells you that you do not have enough funds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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cyber-crimes: image source: India today.in <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Well,\nAfrica losses one billion dollars yearly to illicit financial flows. Recent\ncybersecurity research indicated that cyber-attacks<\/a>\ncost African businesses 3.5 billion dollars in 2017. This is a big blow to\nAfrica\u2019s development. Nigeria has been a hot spot for major cyber-attacks. Cyber-attacks\nrange from malware attacks, system misconfiguration, web application, online\nand bonnet fraud. In late 2018, a 48-year-old man was arraigned in a Nigerian\ncourt for an attempt to defraud<\/a>\npeople by pretending to be the first lady. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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image source: pixabay.com <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A\nstudy by IT services firm Serianu on the amount of money lost by African\ncountries in 2017 to cyber-attacks found that more than 95percent of most African\nbusiness were operating below cyber security\u2019s<\/a>\npoverty line. Most did not have the necessities to protect themselves against\nthe losses. Only four percent of the incidents were reported and only forty\npercent of organizations kept up with the trends in cybersecurity and program\nupdates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nigeria\u2019s\neconomy lost an estimated 649 million dollars followed by Kenya which lost 210 million\ndollars. This takes a huge toll on the economy<\/a>\nand most people are not aware of the digital risk in automating of services.\nFor example, Tanzania has online services that allow one to acquire their birth\ncertificate. This makes it easy for someone to impersonate and use personal\ndata to siphon money from people\u2019s accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n2016 the ministry of foreign affairs in Kenya experienced what is known as a social-engineering<\/a>\nattack. This entails playing with the psychology of the victim and getting the\ninformation one needs. The staff was coaxed into giving personal information\nsuch as their email addresses and passwords that were used to tap into\nsensitive data. Prior to this, an Indonesian hacked 100 government websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly\nall cyber threats in Kenya detected between July and September in 2018 went unresolved<\/a>.\nThe first quarter reported an approximated 3.82 million cyber threats<\/a>\nwhich were a rise from 3.46 million detected between the months of April and June\n2018. The most targeted sector is bank institutions. Recently fake currency in\nBarclays Bank of Kenya was found. Though the real currency was \u2018found\u2019 it makes\nus question the security of our money and transparency in automating services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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image source: visualhunt.com <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In\nsuch an environment something needs to be done urgently. Solutions will\nincrease investment opportunities from foreign countries that are withdrawing\nat the moment. African banks are experiencing a lot of loses. As of 2017,\nAfrican banks had lost a total of 248 million dollars to cyber-attack related\nactivities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can\nthe governments and African banks do more in order to remain secure and at the\nsame time digitalize with the rest of the world?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nnumber of professionals<\/a>\nin cybersecurity is disturbing Kenya, for instance has less than 1,000 given\nthe total estimated population of 40 million citizens. This sees a majority of\nfirms and organizations lacking the necessary personnel to tackle an issue once\nit emerges. Cybersecurity should be introduced to a majority of the universities\nin Kenya as few offer the course. The course is still foreign yet the country\nis digitalizing most of its services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nmajority of the companies see no need to implement cybersecurity standards\nhence exposed to risk. If the situation is to change the standards implemented\nshould be compulsory to all the organizations. This will help secure most of the\npeoples\u2019 information that is entrusted to a majority of these\ninstitutions.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banks\nand government institutions need to understand why they are at risk. The\npolitical and economic landscape of some African countries has a role to play\nin this equation. Banks are targeted mostly as they give information that is\ninsufficient in terms of transparency in terms of their business lines and\nactivities undertaken. The more difficult it is to access anti-money laundering\ninformation, the higher the cost of doing business with a specific bank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solutions\nsuch as transaction screening can be used to take control sanctions. They do\nthis with maximum accuracy and efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data analytics enables banks to manage risk and identify problematic transactions in a more targeted and efficient way. This is done through identification and prioritization on areas that banks wish to investigate deeper. Better information on exposures and a clearer understanding of how networks operate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\nfraud moving increasing from data theft to payment fraud, there is a need to\nre-assess the security of their payment environments. Transaction reporting can\nprovide an important layer of quality assurance. It can highlight when suspicious\nactivity takes place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cybersecurity\nshould be discussed in the open and people made aware of it.  With developments and a lot of money making\nway to the economy, we will need to know it is safe. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine walking into your favourite hotel for the night, due to modern technology you decide to pay with your credit card but when swiped it declines and the receptionists gracefully…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}