paper

Running Head: CYBER SECURITY IN AFRICA 1

CYBER SECURITY IN AFRICA 2

Cyber Security in Africa

March 28, 2019

Cyber Security in Africa

African countries have lagged behind in the implementation and development of internet connectivity and cyber security measures. Being developing nations, most of the African states have not been able to fully enhance and promote internet connectivity, preferring to put their priorities on providing other basic and necessary social amenities to their people. The governments have, however, ensured that there is provision of telecommunication networks across most parts of the continent, and internet service providers would often ride upon these networks for provision of their services to the people.

It is estimated that almost 170 million people across the continent have at least a mobile phone. Internet penetration in Africa has however remained at 18%, which is way lower than the global average connectivity of 30%. It is estimated that only 1 household out of 10 households is connected to the internet. However, the number of connected internet users in Africa has grown sevenfold since 2000 to 2012. This progress can be attributed to the changes in government policy and regulations.

The cyber space in Africa has been growing at a snail speed compares to other regions due to factors such as the lack of relevant skills and knowledge that would have enabled African nations to develop software’s and applications. There are few professionals in the internet and technology sectors, and thus this limits the ability of African countries to come up with their own internet applications. The introduction of internet in Africa saw some already established mobile telephone countries monopolize the internet service delivery sector. Most of the upcoming and newly-established companies which have tried to venture into the sector have had no space for development. This has greatly limited the internet technological investment, which would have helped the internet access to many people.

In Africa, internet penetration has been greatly experienced in the major urban centers, where the relevant infrastructure has been put in place. The poor transport and communication networks in the rural areas has inhibited the investment into the internet sector by both the private and even governmental organizations. The uneven settlement patterns across the continent also discourages internet and communication investment in the rural areas, given that most of the people residing in the rural areas are not stable financially, and they would thus have to put food at the table at the expense of the internet, which is like a luxury and not a necessity to them. Their financial status also does not allow them to possess the internet-enabled mobile phones, tablets and laptops. The well-to-do people often reside in the major urban centers. The internet service providers invest much in the urban centers because these well-to-do people can easily meet the internet costs. The infrastructural development in urban centers also encourages the service providers to invest in the urban centers.

The governments in African states have not done much in investing in the internet sector. Most of the internet providers are often private sectors who are more profit-oriented. Their investment is thus governed by their desire for much profit, and they would thus invest where they can reap maximum benefits. This is always guided by the demographical distribution of people and the infrastructural developments. Many private and public companies are embracing the internet in enhancing their service delivery. There has been a steady growth in the number of people across Africa with access to computers and smartphones. The need for socialization with friends and family in distant places and demand for access to news and other online services has seen a great increase in internet users in Africa.

The increase in the number of internet service providers in the recent past has lowered internet costs, as well as offered the people of Africa options for internet services depending on the reliability of these service providers in different places. In Africa, there are Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Morocco and Egypt are some of the countries with the highest number of internet users. Owing to the general public demand for internet access, the cyber space in Africa is expanding at a moderately fair pace, and there is potential for growth in the near future.

With the improvement in the internet sector in many African countries comes the problem of cyber security. Cyber security is a problem across the globe, and notable organizations and personalities have been victims of this vice (Fields, 2018). Cyber security involves the protection of personal or corporate computer data against infringement, loss, damage, manipulation or theft. This can be damage on the hardware which affects the data, of manipulation, theft and infringement of software data through cybercrime.

Africa’s slow internet penetration hinders its ability to monitor and counter cybercrime. Many people in Africa are yet to get enlightened on cyber security, and the internet service providers and the government have not put in adequate measures to prevent the internet users against it. Most of these internet users are still ignorant to the possibility of becoming victims of cybercrime, and therefore do not take the necessary measures to prevent it happening to them. The internet platform has many loopholes which cyber criminals may take advantage of to exploit the unsuspecting ignorant and innocent users.

There are several vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the computer system’s design and operation, and internet platforms that could get exploited by cyber criminals and used to interfere with the data (Tschider, 2018). The cyber criminals use several backdoors resulting from poor system configuration or design. Some of these backdoors get created by the system’s designers and authorized personnel for some legal reasons and access, while others could get created by external attackers with the aim of gaining access to the data saved in the computer system. In Africa, there are many systems being embraced, both foreign and locally-designed systems. With these systems in place, the criminals take advantage of the loopholes in the design and get into other people’s personal data. Many would either use the access gained to get private corporate information from companies and people, and also to even to steal money from them (Moskowitz, 2017).

Computer systems are vulnerable to phishing. Phishing occurs when an unauthorized person tries to gain access to sensitive information in from internet users. The sensitive personal information could be usernames and passwords to online platforms, or credit card information. Phishing involves generation and creation of platforms or websites which are identical to another recognized one which internet users are used to. The clone website would ask the internet users for their login information in a manner similar to which the legitimate website would have asked them to (Tschider, 2018). With this information, the scammers can gain access to their culprit’s real account on the legitimate website. From that, they would either distort the information, or even make away with money from their victims if they also got their bank details. In Africa, banking has also gone online, and many people are embracing it to save them from the hustle of always having to present themselves at the banks for transactions. Kenya is an African country that has had a major breakthrough in the mobile money industry, and this also has created loopholes for cyber criminals to act upon.

Spoofing has been reported in some cases, whereby one falsifies the login data, such as the IP addresses of usernames, in order to access information illegally (Tschider, 2018). This can be through the email, where one forges the source of the email, or even biometrically, where the attacker poses as the valid user after producing a fake biometric sample. In other cases, the attackers use the Denial of Service attacks to deny the intended users of a network or computer system. The attackers could consistently input wrong login data into the computer or network system, forcing the computer system or the network to be locked. This can also be done by forcing the computer network to block all its users instantly by overloading its capabilities. Such forms of cybercrime are also possible in Africa.

The vulnerability of the people of Africa to cybercrime gives them a big blow in their pursuit of greater internet penetration. Africa is a politically-active continent. People are always interested in getting information concerning their leaders and other social news. The internet has come along with the propagation and spread of rumors and fake news. Using the internet, some bloggers seeking to amass many followers have always been tempted to post captivating news that would gain them more readers. Some of this news is often posted with no clear background and justification. Fake news have always fed the readers wrong information, and depending on the nature of the news, this may cause stress on the readers as well as the people being talked about in the fake news (Muhatia, 2018).

Cyber bullying has been on the rise in Africa, increasing almost synonymously with the increase in internet connectivity in the region. Some internet users use the platform to stalk, intimidate and even harass other users. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are well embraced in the continent. The social nature of these sites allows people to pass information to other people easily. Some people use these platforms to attack other users based on their personalities (Muhatia, 2018). In some cases, the interconnectivity nature of these platforms have enabled Africans to interact with people from all over the world. Due to a reason or another, some online users from Africa have been bullied due to the state of their continent or even racially. Cyber bullying also occurs whereby false or unconfirmed news get spread about an individual.

Several cases of online bank robberies have been recorded in Africa. Billions of dollars have been reported missing from bank accounts after thieves accessed the system through backdoors or other vulnerabilities and transferred a lot of money from the bank accounts to their personal accounts. Worms and viruses have also been used to attack the systems and hence facilitate the transfer of funds to the accounts of the thieves. The banks and the government have not put enough measures in place to safeguard money in the banks and other online accounts.

The continent of Africa has many people who would like to rise beyond their social and financial status to better standards. The continent has a high rate of unemployment, and both the learned and unlearned complain of the same fate. The internet has provided opportunities for people across the continent to get jobs through online applications, and some of them also get online jobs. However, most people find it hard telling which job offers are genuine. Some online advertisements for jobs often end up as scams, making away with the applicants’ money without meeting their needs.

These vulnerabilities are being countered by the government, individual persons and also by other organizations. The governments and people of Africa have been victims of cybercrime over the vulnerabilities of the internet platform. Both can attest on the effects of cybercrime as encountered. This is greatly affecting the internet penetration across the continent, with fears of getting conned in the process of using the internet. Cases of cybercrime have also discouraged financial institutions from fully investing in the continent, with fears of getting massive losses due to the numerous cases of robberies reports over the internet.

There is need for measures to be put in place to save the continent from the rising cases of cybercrime. Due to unemployment, some of the learned and computer literate IT students and graduates in Africa would seek to make a living by exploiting online users and institutions. It is necessary for the African governments to create employment opportunities so that these competent computer wizards can channel their energy in building the society instead of looking for loopholes in the internet to rob others of their hard-earned fortunes. The individual internet users should ensure that they protect their network login details against the attackers who may be seeking to prey on them. It is necessary for corporate organizations to also put in measures against cybercrime by employing state-of-the art technology and cyber security firms to help protect their data.

The network providers and system designers are being more keen in the design of the systems. Efforts are being put in place to lock out the loopholes and backdoors that would have otherwise been used by the attackers to gain access to the system and interfere or even steal the data (Moskowitz, 2017). Some African companies and parastatals have brought in ethical hackers who are mandated to play the part of the attackers and see if there are any loopholes that would give the attackers access to the system. The ethical hackers would advise on the security measures to be enforced so that the system becomes fully secure from the attackers. The Defense in depth security measure is also being employed, whereby a system contains more subsystems to deny the attacker easy attack and violation of the main system.

The system designers can also use firewalls as preventive measures to filter the network data from the host to another network. These firewalls are often in machines that are connected to the internet throughout. The network filtering can be by a software bring run on the computer for filtering any potential security breaches. It may also be through a physical firewall, whereby a separate machine to filter out network traffic. Another way of countering the vulnerabilities is by the use of the Two-factor authentication method. This denies unwarranted access to system data by requiring an input familiar to the authorized system user. This can be in the form of passwords, PINs, cards and other pieces of hardware. The unauthorized people cannot gain access to the system, and any inputs which are not similar to the user’s details are rejected.

African states are in dire need for internet connection and cyber security to enable them to enjoy the internet without fear of intimidation and harassment by other online users or the fear that they could lose some of their data and funds to online scammers and attackers. The governments should put into place laws that forbid cybercrimes of any nature, and heavy penalties should be put in place. With cyber security in place, there will be enough reasons for genuine online businesses and financial institutions to work without fear of intimidation or losing their data. People will no longer fear being attacked either personally on social media or on their personal data. Cyber security is bound to push African states to greater levels in internet penetration and connectivity.

References Fields, Z. (2018). Handbook of research on information and cyber security in the fourth industrial revolution. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Moskowitz, S. (2017). Cybercrime and business: strategies for global corporate security. Kidlington, Oxford; Cambridge, MA: Butterworth-Heineman is an imprint of Elsevier. Muhatia, A. (2018, December 20). Cyber threats now at worrying levels. Retrieved March 23, 2019, from The Star: https;//www.the-star.co.ke/amp/counties/2018-12-20-cyber-threats-now-at-worrying-levels/ Tschider, C. (2018). International cybersecurity and privacy law in practice. Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands: Kluwer law International B.V.