Technology company; Internet Solutions (IS) has reportedly set up a cybersecurity centre in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) Centre which had a cost of 20 million Kenyan Shillings, is intended to help companies to develop risk based strategies that will help prevent cyber attacks within their IT environments and will be manned round the clock.
Dr. Bright Mawudor who is the Head of Internet Solutions (IS)’s Cyber Security Services said, “Monitoring, analysing and responding capabilities are a costly and complicated exercise that businesses must undertake to remain safe. We now have a local threat intelligence centre that will assist businesses be cyber-resilient.”
Cyber attacks have in recent times, has become an existential threat to almost all companies which have automated their services and operations.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of TransUnion Kenya; Billy Owino, stated that online fraudsters are a growing risk to Kenyan businesses as they carry out their operations from remote locations both within and outside Kenya.
The CEO (Billy Owano), added that businesses which are intent on benefiting from the billions in e-commerce, should ensure that their systems are all embedded embed with fraud detection systems, as well as identity verification as secure e-commerce platforms, are now inevitable seeing that up to 9.5 million e-commerce users in Kenya, were reported to have bought goods and also paid for services online through bank applications and mobile payment platforms in 2018 alone.
The increase in the use of digital transactions inevitably leads to clients becoming vulnerable to fraudsters and their passwords and financial data getting compromised passwords.
A recent study by audit and financial advisory firm PWC dubbed Global Economic and Fraud Survey 2018 revealed that Kenya is an economic fraud hotspot just behind South Africa as a result of its high number of e-commerce operations.
The Communications Authority (CA)’s quarterly report which was released in April 2019, stated that cybersecurity threats increased by 167 percent to 10.2 million from the 3.8 million figure which was detected in the previous quarter while 12,197 cyber threat advisories were issued to affected organisations, thus marking a 91 percent increase.
According to Business Daily Africa, several financial institutions as well as state entities have also reported loss of funds as well as data theft, threatening to reverse major gains in the use of mobile for business transactions in the past.
