Financial institutions are still vulnerable to cyberattacks in East and Central Africa, with the region sufficient laws to curb the menace.
This was made public during a press briefing by Sammy Kioko, alliance manager, Cyber Security Africa, in Dar-es-Salaam, ahead of the East Africa Banking and IT Security conference slated for April 24 and 25.
Director of information, communication and technology in the Tanzanian Ministry of Communications, Science and Technology Dr Zaipuna Yonah added the region was still lacking the legal backing to combat cybercrime, though Tanzania was working on enacting such laws.
“There are ongoing technical preparations for the enactment of the law expected to be finalised before the end of the year,” he said.
During the last Cyber Security Africa conference in Nairobi, Kenya, it was revealed that cybercrime is growing faster in African nations than in most other countries in the world.
“8,000 incidents recorded in Africa, more than 4,000 on fraud, 2,000 phishing attacks on banks. We have also seen data breaches on some organisations in Africa,” Cyber Security Africa operations manager Luke Mulunda said.
“Cybersecurity is still a threat in Africa and the world as a whole. Africa has suffered on cybercrime. Cyber security cannot be outsourced to one sector on the industry.”
Discussions during this year’s conference will include: IT security threats, fraud, risk and regulatory matters affecting financial institutions, public and private organisations in their daily operations.
