Kenyans lose over KSh 2.9 billion through internet theft – Report ▷ Kenya News

– Firms lost KSh 2.95 billion to cons in 2018 up from KSh 2.1 billion lost in 2017

– Banks, Sacco’s and insurance firms are among the hardest hit by internet theft

– This has been blamed on weak frameworks firms are putting to ward off cybercrime

Even as various organisations continue to invest heavily to battle cyber crime, a freshly released report has revealed that the menace continues to run deep.

According to a study published by cyber security firm Serianu, firms in the country lost to a tune of KSh 2.95 billion to online based fraudsters in 2018.

Serianu Chief Operating Officer Joseph Mathenge stated that the amount had gone up from KSh 2.1 billion recored in 2017.

Mathenge observed that cons targeted financial institutions. Banks and Sacco’s being among the hardest hit.

He attributed the surge in the cases to lack of proper frameworks by institutions to ward off financial data hacking and also inadequate experts to deal with data infiltration.

“In the course of our research, we learned that several institutions had weak verification processes and lacked personnel with adequate technical understanding of the risks they faced with these systems and their potential impact if maliciously breached,” said Mathenge.

He added that most organisations were yet to appreciate the enormity of the need to protect their information assets, ranging from simple things like email passwords to complex data like the core financial processing applications or an entire human resource department’s payroll database.

According to the report, business email compromise and cheque fraud were the leading methods of cybercrime, losing KSh 230 million, KSh 100 million and KSh 70 million respectively.

Identity theft accounted for about KSh 66 million lost.

In a separate story, TUKO.co.ke reported that an official from telecommunication giant, Safaricom had revealed that about KSh 20 million was lost to mobile money fraud 2018.

This, according to Safaricom Chief Corporate Security Officer Nicholas Mulila was an improvement from KSh 90 million lost during the previous year.

The DPP Noordin Haji and Auditor General Edward Ouko are among leaders alarmed by the development and they have pressed upon organisations to invest heavily in preventing cyber crime.

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Source: Tuko