Cyber security trends and the ancient art of deception
As more of our physical world moves into the digital space, crimes that were once only possible in the real world are now emulated in the cyber space.
At the African Women in Technology three-day conference held in Nairobi, the cyber session panelists discussed cyber security trends and strategies.
In the past few weeks, the Safaricom sim-swap has become common in Kenya with more people falling victim of the fraud. The rising cases of these scams have raised serious concerns on privacy and the economic effects they bring about. The topic of cyber security strategies and trends was tackled in-depth at the African Women in Technology conference held on June 21 2018. The event which was held at the Nairobi Garage of Ngong Road was organised by AWIT.
The panel discussing cyber security strategies and trends consisted of Digital lawyer Faith Obafemi, Gadiness Co-Founder Irene Njoroge, Stacy Chege of Cellulant, Safaricom’s Joylynn Kirui and was moderated by Laura Tich of Code for Africa and SheHacks KE. The aim of this discussion was to shed a light on evolving technologies and the insecurities that come with them. The panelists also proposed solutions for some of the common cyber security attacks on individuals and organisations.
Technology is constantly evolving with more and more new machines and softwares introduced with the goal of making human life easier. Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things are some of the common topics in today’s world. However, even with the new, more secure technologies, malicious actors will always manipulate the human link to gain vital information. The panelists gave examples of the Safaricom sim swap, the Wangiri fraud calls and the infamous Blue Whale game where unsuspecting targets were manipulated into giving sensitive data and participating in harmful challenges.
In cases such as filing tax returns and logging M-Pesa transactions, most people give out their identification details without knowledge of the chain of custody over this information.
The government of Kenya should sensitise people about revealing their information carelessly especially when filing their tax returns as most people have been doing it over a long time — Stacy Chege
The prevalent cases of data manipulation and theft calls for stronger preventive measures. At the end of the session, it was agreed that all stakeholders should be obliged to create and enforce policies that will ensure that the technologies we use are safe for all. Innovators, vendors, consumers and the government all have big roles to play in ensuring that technology is safe for use. Most importantly, security is also an individual responsibility. Users should be aware of the links they click on and the information they give out.
Do you need help with digital security? ANCIR offers a helpline, technical resources, and sharing best practices with newsrooms and human rights activists for free. If you’d like to get access to these and more, sign up here to be considered for our digital security support.
The African Network of Centers for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR) is an association of the continent’s best investigative newsrooms, ranging from large traditional media to small specialist units.
ANCIR works to strengthen African investigative journalism by improving the techniques, expertise, the tools used in muckraking newsrooms. This includes providing member newsrooms with the world’s best encryption and semantic analysis technologies, to forensic research support (through the Investigative Dashboard), legal services, and seed grants for cross-border collaboration.
ANCIR is incubated by and receives technical support from Code for Africa.
