16 Sep 2019

Cybercrime is a global phenomenon that has gained currency the across world and affects the global economy, Kenyan High Commissioner to Botswana and Special Representative to SADC, Mr Mohamed Shidiye, has said.

Giving a keynote address at the 5th Annual African Cyber Crime Conference, recently, Mr Shidiye said looking at financial losses by government institutions, corporations, individual companies and private individuals, the loss was a whooping and staggering figure that affected the lives of many people. 

However, Mr Shidiye said cyber was an innovation, which was both good and bad.

He expressed concern that currently many financial institutions, particularly banks, kept quiet when attacked by cyber threats because they feared they would lose customers if they talked about their loss.

“The bank is built on confidence and stability. Therefore, it can be fragile if the information is leaked to the public that the bank was hacked and money was stolen. So, most banks suffer in silence about cyber threat issues, because they fear losing customers,” he added.

Launching the Cybercrime Report 2018, Serianu Limited group CEO, Mr William Makatiani said Botswana faced a dire shortage of cyber-security professionals.

To address the challenge, Mr Makatiani said the country needed to grow its population of trained cyber-security professionals, adding that ‘to fight cyber threats you require adequate professionally personnel.’

He also noted that the survey results revealed the need for organisations in Botswana to rapidly ramp up their focus on monitoring, identifying, assessing and arresting the cyber-security threats.

Serianu Limited group CEO expressed concern that cybercrime had grown tremendously, in recent years, in Botswana, but some organisations in the country still neglected to invest resources to strengthen their cyber security readiness.

Serianu Limited is a Pan African Cyber Security consulting firm with presence in Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Botswana and Nigeria.

The firm provides dynamic business-focused security monitoring and analytics solutions through a combination of consulting, managed services and threat intelligence.

Botswana Africa Cyber Security managing director, Mr Chris Johnson said the country was now well-positioned to leapfrog the lessons other countries had encountered to avoid going through similar experiences.

The two days conference themed; Prepare/Prevent/Protect/Prosecute is held annually to establish a multi-stakeholder consortium that brings together industry, government, and academic interests in an effort to improve the state of cybersecurity on both a domestic and international level.  ENDS