The ManicaPost
Tanyaradzwa Mujati
Post Reporter
THERE is an increase in cyber fraud in Zimbabwe, with over US$4,5 million being lost by corporates in two months this year.
Speaking during a cyber security forensics advisory audit training in Nyanga yesterday (Thursday), the director of MorniPac Consultancy, Dr Whisper Rukanda, said between January and February this year, over $6 billion which is equivalent to US$4,5 million was lost through cyber fraud in the country.
The training was bringing out the risks that come out with cyber fraud and also deliberating and putting together a framework to secure corporates which are losing billions of dollars through cyber fraud.
Dr Rukanda said cyber fraud crimes are emanating from card cloning, e-mail hacking, denial of services and WhatsApp groups which are being created as well as romance scams.
“WhatsApp groups are being created and people are being asked to pay for goods the fraudsters purport to supply. After paying, the fraudsters disappear as well as the WhatsApp group. There is a lot of identity theft happening when people access other people’s identity particulars and use them to open bank accounts. This calls for some robotic and more secure ways of securing people’s IDs,” he said.
Dr Rukanda advised companies to employ information security officers who operates outside IT departments.
He said these people will assess information assets of organisations and how secure they are from both logical and physical position.
“If an organisation still has a cyber expert who is still reporting to the ICT manager, then the entity has not yet started protecting its organisation because this person should sit outside to check on ICT exposure and risk and perhaps compliance issues.
“Organisations must be trained on cyber security and data protection requirements. In South Africa, there is Popai which gives organisations training compliance deadlines. We are also looking at the regulatory environment of cyber security and internet fraud data protection since in Zimbabwe we have the Cyber Security and Data Protection Act as a framework of operations that have been put together.
“We are now waiting for the operalisaton of that whole structure because it is very important. It will help businesses protect themselves and by complying, they will be able to stay in the safe zone,” said Dr Rukanda.
He hailed steps being taken by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to reduce cyber fraud through the stopping of the use of mark strip cards, which made it easier for criminals to dupe people and organisations.
“The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has also indicated that they have a deadline to stop the use of mark strip card which was a corridor that was being used by criminals to get money out of corporates and individuals accounts. They are going to use smart cards with chips. Criminals will not be able to replicate or use the cards,” he said.
He urged organisations to do a cyber risk assessment at least once a month to ensure that they or their customers are not prone to cyber fraud by cyber criminals.
