The proliferation of smartphones and the ubiquitous internet has enhanced online transactions. As a result, online businesses have increased by leaps and bounds in recent years.
People no longer need to travel to physical retail stores or commercial banks or institutions to buy or sell; they can do it from their home or office.
On the flip side, the benefits of online transactions come with disastrous and devastating cybercrime, cyberbullying, cyberstalking and cyberfraud.
Cashless transactions are vulnerable to phishing attacks, distributed denial of service (DDOS), bad bolts, malware and man-in-the-middle attacks.
Credit card fraud
The recent hacking into the e-Citizen exposed the soft underbelly of online services. While the government termed the incident as an attempt by cybercriminals at stealing data from the portal, the unpalatable truth is that more than 5,000 major government online services and others like M-Pesa transactions, purchase of electricity tokens and digital banking ground to a halt, frustrating the users.
That is the tip of the iceberg. The media is replete with cases of credit card fraud, electronic payment systems and e-cash data misuse among other vices.
Simply put, the increased uptake of e-commerce, cloud-based services and internet penetration has triggered cybercrime.
As Kaspersky researcher Alexey Komarov says, “a device that connects to a USB port ‘attempts to handshake’ with the computer, during which data can be transmitted”.
Nobody is immune from cyberattacks. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics says the number of online crimes reported more than doubled from 39.1 million in 2021 to 700 million in 2022. The main object of cybercriminals is economic espionage and theft of trade secrets and personal data.
Detecting fake websites
Another report, by the National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team Coordination Centre, shows 158.4 million cyberthreats were detected as of June 2021 from 110.9 million in 2020.
The 2017 Kenya Cyber Security Report by Serianu says Kenya lost Sh21.1 billion to cybercrime, 40 per cent up from Sh15.1 billion in 2015. It says the amount rose to Sh29 billion in 2018. Data indicate that Africa loses some Sh413.2 billion annually to cybercrime.
The National Cyber Security Awareness Month is celebrated every October 25 in the US. This year’s theme is “Secure Our World”.
Methods of preventing cybercrime include detecting fake websites, avoiding banking using public Wi-Fi, continuous updating of antivirus software, safeguarding the ATM card, shunning assistance by strangers in ATM booths, not saving passwords on computers or mobile browsers and ensuring endpoint protection.
Others are, securing network devices, implementing firewall technologies, implementing the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA), securing the Local Area Network (LAN) and intrusion detection and prevention. The time to keep cybercriminals at bay is now. Discretion is the better part of valour. The time to secure our world is now.
Mr Muthama is a business and strategic management lecturer at JKUAT, consultant and author; [email protected]
