I will admit that the title is borrowed, it was too well placed not to be but the issue is real. Kenya has been ranked 5th (in the world mark you) in terms of cyber crime bringing to light the need for companies and government to seriously consider an upgrade in terms of security systems.
No longer shall we bury our heads in the sand and pretend that this is an issue that will solve itself, the perennial increase in unemployment has pushed those with technical know how towards less than credible ventures and if the skill set of Kenyans is anything to go by then we are in for a roller coaster. Personally speaking as a slowly developing expert in the field of telecommunications I can attest to the ease at which an average programmer can turn black-hat (a term used to refer to malicious hackers).
Given the right tools and current financial situation, economically speaking if I had the skill set to infiltrate a financial institution and get away with it, I would (morally speaking is another story all together).
Found this interesting fact in an article on the JKUAT website
"Recent research shows that Kenya’s cyber security remains among the weakest in the world, exposing mobile phone subscribers and Internet users to data interceptions."
I'll begin with what I know, cyber crime is described as the use of a computer to perform and attack and/or have it as a victim of attack. Hackers use the computers to penetrate systems in order to gain information or alter it in a bid to cause loss of thus said information, they can also be doing it for monetary gain. (I feel like this can be explained better but you get the gist of what I'm talking about).
The biggest threat to any institution is not really the hacker out there, its the Judas within. When a disgruntled employee decides its in their best interest to disclose organization secrets for monetary gain then you know that you're in trouble. This is because if you don't know where the leaks are then you honestly can't fix it.
Its to be noted that there has been an increase in proxy servers within the country, a growth from 50,000 to 290,000 (these are unconfirmed figures) but if you're techno-savvy I'm sure you can understand what this means in terms of increased cyber crime. This was all part of the Ministry for Information's report which did categorically state that Kenya losses about 2 Billion due to cyber crime, this is mostly in banks just so you know (feeling really good about my mattress account right about now). It's employee's that are the ones hatching these elaborate plans to fleece customers of their hard earned cash, see what I meant when I said Judas within.
Cyber crime isn't just limited to money, there exists the human element to it. What do I mean ? Well, have your heard of the term cyber bully ? Kenyans of late have become notorious for this , latest case I can remember being Mirfat on #tujuane. (well all know how that escalated quickly).
So, after all's said, what is being done by the government of the day to combat this?? The ODPP (sounds cool, doesn't it. Stands for Office of the Director of Public Prosecution ) has launched a dedicated unit to prosecute cyber crimes and a bill dubbed Cyber-Crime and Computer Related Offenses Bill 2014 should be in some stage in parliament or maybe it has been passed, not to sure about that one.
I feel like I could go on for a while but let me stop with one famous quote from someone I'm sure you all know very well "Ulinizi unaanza na mimi, ulinzi unaanza na wewe"
just sayinG
No comments:
Post a Comment