Cybercriminals have become brazen in their attacks on our financial systems.
In recent weeks, Safaricom’s MPESA APP has borne the biggest brunt.
Many clients of the rogue Telco have had their accounts wiped nil by cyber criminals who partly operate from Safaricom headquarters.
In its sustainability report released in 2021, Safaricom fired 28 employees in the year ended March 2021 for fraud-related offences, a jump from 16 dismissals the year before.
The majority of the cases, 22, related to data privacy with eight involving breach of policy and four SIM swap cases. Two cases involved asset misappropriation.
Some recent complaints are shared below.
The numbers
In Kenya, Cybercrime has been on the rise.
In 2020, cyber crimes in the country increased to nearly 140 million.
READ: Cartel Networks: Safaricom Deteriorating Since Bob Collymore Died
Malware was the most common online crime in Kenya, with some 124 million reports.
Reports indicate that, in general, the number of cyber crimes in the country grew fivefold in three years.
In October 2021, KCB Bank Group reported that in 2020, they stopped a Sh2 billion attempted fraud on its banking system last year, underscoring the increase in brazen online attacks.
Increased use of mobile and Internet banking have exposed bank customers to cybercrime, especially fraud and phishing attacks
Mobile money transactions in Kenya jumped 52 per cent to Sh3.26 trillion in the six months to June, Central Bank of Kenya data show.
Cases where links are widely circulated promising free airtime, money and other products have been used in phishing attacks to collect personal data and use it to siphon cash.
Phishing happens when criminals send out legitimate-looking e-mails from trustworthy websites requesting personal and financial details from unsuspecting people.
They direct you to counterfeit web pages that look identical to the companies’ sites to fool you into submitting personal or financial data and passwords.
Personal data
A review by business advisory firm Ernst & Young shows that 41 per cent of firms transfer their clients’ personal data to third-party service providers.
It found that 53 per cent of companies do not seek the consent of their customers, thus violating the law that protects sensitive private information.
