Cyber crime spike alert

With a new study by MasterCard revealing more South Africans are now shopping online, experts have warned of the vulnerability of the country’s cyber space.

According to the 2013 Norton Report South Africa is ranked number three behind Russia and China in the worst affected countries in the world.

Estimates suggest that cyber crime is a national crisis and is costing the country well over R1bn a year. Cyber crime is any form of a crime involving a computer or the internet.

It involves phishing scams and theft of intellectual property among others.

The main cyber crimes are the 419 scams, phishing, internet and cellphone banking fraud and identity theft.

Credit and account thefts are also are considered cyber crimes if committed using the net or computer.

Prof Basie von Solms, a researcher at the Academy for Computer Science and Software Engineering at the University of Johannesburg warned that if action is not taken, the country might end up being ranked second or first in the world.

“Cyber crime is a national crisis, we need a proper policy framework for a secure cyber space. The syndicates find it quite easy to operate in South Africa due to a lack of resources,” he warned.

Solms said government needs to train police and prosecutors to know how to successfully investigate and arrest cyber criminals, and to explain prosecuting cyber crime before a judge.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in the US listed South Africa as the sixth most active country where cyber crime took place.

Hawks spokesperson Paul Ramaloko said a cyber unit has been set up to deal with the escalating cases.

Sourse: thenewage.co.za