Kenya’s Takaful Insurance of Africa, the only Sharia-compliant insurance institution in Kenya, has launched a new digital data protection product that will see Kenyans secure their data online without the fear of their information being accessed by hackers.
The new product that will now be available in Kenya as My Cyber Care Takaful comes at a time Kenya just received the Data Protection Act but greatly limited in protecting Kenyans against hackers. The Data Protection Act only shields Kenyans against their personal data being mined or used by under individuals, businesses, organizations or governments without consent.
Stats show that Kenya has become a haven for international hackers who are always targeting both financial institutions and individuals. In the year 2019, Kenyans and banks lost more than 2.6 billion shillings to hackers. For individuals, hackers are now accessing banking apps and withdrawing cash without the consent of the account holder.
Criminals are smart, determined and highly incentivized, always looking for ways to exploit digital platforms to defraud victims. Although the mitigation strategies deployed by Banks are very robust, it is easier to target people as they are the weakest link.
Criminals are very skilled at using social engineering to manipulate their victims into divulging their personal or confidential information. They capitalize on the fact that not all digital banking clients are digitally literate and exploit this vulnerability. Using technology, coupled with social engineering, criminals can gather sufficient information to impersonate victims, bypassing bank security protocols.
“My Cyber Care Takaful Monitors and Protects Personal Digital Assets and Digital Devices in Real-time. The system creates total protection for DigitalResidue, left via overexposure of your digital footprint. The system monitors and alerts for fraudulent usage of your critical data inputs such as ID, Credit Card, Email, IP Devices, and Mobile Number. Advises the individual what action to take, to reduce their risk of being a victim of crime online, on an ongoing basis,” said Takaful during the launch of the product.
According to Takaful Insurance of Africa, “our mission is to help you stay safe online and reap all the benefits of the Internet. Protecting your digital life is hard, we make it easy. We understand that everyone has a different level of cyber risk, big businesses don’t.”