Kenyan SACCOs Losing Ksh 72 Million Daily to Hackers

Kenyan based SACCOs are the most vulnerable to cybercrimes as they lose about 72 million shillings to hackers every day according to a report by Internet Solutions Kenya.

Internet Solutions Kenya head of security Bright Gameli said that Saccos are at high risk of losing their monies especially those adopting mobile banking and the systems or applications are poorly done.

Gameli attributes this exposure to continuous use of the Automated Lender Machines (ATMs), mobile enabled-technology and offering other services like banking to clients and members.

The firm estimated that Saccos lose about 50,000 shillings per minute which accrues to 72million per day and 26.28 billion shillings annually.

A Central Bank’s FinAccess Household survey 2019 indicated that saccos are controlling 9.4 percent of savings in Kenya placed third after mobile money services and bank saving accounts at 53.6 percent and 25.4 percent respectively.

On the other hand, the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (Sasra) revealed that 442.27 billion shillings were accumulated by deposit-taking SACCOs in the year 2017. The deposits accrued to a total of 305.3 billion shillings while the total loans had an accrual of 331.2 billion shillings.

A report released in 2018 by Serianu, a cybersecurity firm, revealed that the cybercrimes contributed to a loss of 29.5 billion shillings, with the hackers targeting government agencies, banks, and saccos.

According to Serianu, eight billion shillings of the money was lost in direct costs either through attacks or through the payment of ransom to free up stolen data. About 20 billion shillings were lost indirectly through the purchase of equipment and software, training and systems monitoring.

Bright Gameli pointed out that there has been a reduction to the incidences owing to increased warnings and campaigns against the crime even though some banks are still taking the crimes lightly.

“About 80 percent of banks systems allow sending of emails with forged addresses. This kind of cyber fatigue would get difficult to handle if there is no right framework,” Gameli added.

Payment service providers such as PayPal and Pesalink are also facing the risks related to cybercrime.

Read Also: Could Money Market Funds Be the Death of Saccos?