Kenya Lost 15 Billion Shilling Through Cybercrime

By / Published October 29, 2015 | 9:02 am

It has emerged that Kenyan firms lost close to 15 billion shillings through cybercrime last year with the public sector being the most affected and according to a report, the amount lost has actually tripled since the previous year and this has raised questions about the security of Kenya and its readiness to fight the menace of cybercrime.

This is according to the 2015 Cyber Security Report that was released on Wednesday and from the findings of the report, the public sector in the country lost five billion shillings from the cybercrime followed by the financial services sector which lost four billion shillings. According to the report, at least five thousand internet routers and the CCTV cameras belonging to companies are accessible 0ver the internet, and, therefore, in the process, exposed to hackers because of the default in the factory settings.

This year, contrast with last year when Kenya itself and Germany were the bases of hackers, top attacks on the Kenyan systems this year came from the United States and China. This report was prepared by the Seriamu Cyber Threat Intelligence Team, PKF Consulting and United States International University Africa’s Centre for Informatics Research and Innovation and was released with the aim of helping to raise the awareness on the extent of the hacking vice in the country and also for immediate action to be taken by the relevant authorities.

According to the report, Kenya is still ill equipped in terms of fighting Cybercrime despite the numerous efforts by the government to try and curb the vice and that up to date, the time when the world has fully evolved technologically, mechanisms for successfully fight, track and calculate cybercrime losses in the country are not well established and put in place.

The report also notes that most attacks are committed by staff and are very sophisticated, taking at least 12o days to detect.