A harsh financial weather was suffered by Kenyan businesses as it has been unveiled that this entities bled a whole sh ksh 29.8 billion to cyber crime in 2018. This is even as it has been projected that malware attacks will rise this year.
Serianu’s 2018 Africa cybersecurity report shows that ATM attacks and phishing attempts (fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by disguising oneself as a trustworthy entity) were frequent during the year as were SIM swap cases.
According to the report, SIM swap has become a lucrative enterprise in Kenya particularly because of the increased adoption of mobile money services and mobile number based authentication.
The report authored by the Pan African cyber security consultancy firm shows that during the year, executives were more aware of the danger that cyber crime pose to their firms and as such there was a 50% increase involvement in matters cyber security by board members.
“Cyber criminals gather enough information on a target such as ID details and Pin numbers etc through confidence tricks they create a false identity,” reads the report “Using this information, the attackers then contact the service provider and request for a SIM card replacement and thereafter start transacting using your phone number,”
“We estimate that today, Kenya needs at least 10,000 cyber security professionals to keep abreast with the number of organisations in need of this critical skill, yet we have observed that each year, just about 100 new personnel join the market,” reads the report.
The report is based on feedback from over 300 IT and security professionals in the country.