Cyber-attacks are becoming more
sophisticated daily and have a significant impact on the operation of the
public and private sectors globally. The attacks have advanced from merely
password guessing/cracking, hijacking sessions to advanced persistent threats,
organized crime, nation-state cyber warfare and cyber based terrorism. The
trends are worrying.
Resultantly, cyber-crime has
accounted for 22% of all economic crime reported locally by financial services
organizations. Forensic experts have estimated Ksh 3 billion to be the cost of
cybercrime on the Kenyan economy. USD 245 million was estimated as the combined
estimated threat on the East African financial institutions. A 2012 CSI/FBI
study estimated the global cost of ICT crime and remediation efforts to be USD
110 billion.
The major ICT advances pose an
ever-evolving risk environment which presents substantial security challenges
to the Kenyan government. The most
emerging risk areas are, the increased socio economic dependence on information
resulting in need to proactively create procedures to ensure nonstop service delivery.
Infrastructure vulnerabilities due to growing access to information assets is
another. Globalization of ICT and hence organized crime creates a need for
secure electronic identification capabilities.
Technology driven threats have
dramatically increased and furthermore, the capabilities of the culprits are on
the increase. Though there are different initiatives set in place by the
government, institutions and individuals to curb information insecurity these
initiatives cannot adequately address our current risk environment.
The whole approach to information
security needs to be rethought and healthy practices be put in place to protect
critical IT infrastructure. It is imperative that personnel handling the same
be adequately informed and trained before the situation worsens and the cost is
even greater.
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