“Cyber security is an area of growing concern for many governments all over the world. Considering the ubiquitous nature of cyberspace, we have no option but to work as a bloc in order to have better impact in fighting cyber crime,” he said.
ARICEA estimates the cost of cyber crime globally to be Sh400 billion.
“It is therefore critical that governments in the world work towards protecting consumers as more and more consumers are joining digital platforms that are exposing them to cyber crime,” Chair of ARICEA, Devi Chand said.
This comes as the number of cellular subscribers worldwide continues to increase.
According to the International Telecommunications Union, there are more than 7 billion mobile cellular subscribers worldwide in 2015, having risen from less than 1 billion in 2000. Of the 7 billion, 3.2 billion people are using the internet with more than 2 billion of them coming from developing countries such Kenya.
“As many services and national infrastructure today are increasingly tired to the internet, we therefore must mitigate the risk of disruptive potential of cyber-attacks,” said Communications Authority of Kenya Director General Francis Wangusi.
To do this, Wangusi stated that Kenyans will soon have to register their mobile phones with Kenya Network Information Centre in order to fight cyber crime, as cyber crime is increasing targeting mobile phone users.
Additionally, the African Union launched a legal framework that is conducive for promotion of cyber security in Africa in 2012 in a bid to mitigate cyber crime.
For instance, to protect people’s personal data, the draft’s recommends to all Member States to put in place a legal framework with a view to establishing a mechanism to combat breaches of private life likely to arise from the gathering, processing, transmission, storage and use of personal data.
James Mugo, an IT technician based in Nairobi, is of however of different thoughts as far as fighting Cyber Crime is concerned.
“Cyber crime, like any other type of crime, cannot be stopped by the government. It is all about ethics. The society is the one to stop cyber crime,” he says.
He however acknowledges the place of the government in controlling and minimizing it, stating that creating awareness about cyber crime and training the public about it is a good place to start.
“The government and other institutions in the country can take it upon themselves to raise awareness on the fight against cyber crime. For instance, the public can be sensitized on the importance of regularly changing their passwords and logging out from their machines once they are done using them,” he explains.
Mugo also talks about the importance of using sophisticated passwords that cannot be easily traced.
