Kenya lost Ksh 29.5 billion to cyber crime in 2018, with financial services, government, service providers including betting and Fin techs as well as healthcare and hospitality sectors being most targeted.
Auditor General Edward Ouko says it is critical to build capacity locally to enhance the ability to anticipate, detect, respond and contain cyber threats.
According to the African Cyber security report 2018 by Serianu, there has been an increase in reported cyber crime incidents with locally engineered malwares on the rise as well as increased targeted ATM attacks.
According to the survey, crypto miners are targeting manufacturing, educational and financial service institutions.
Cumulatively, Kenya lost Ksh29.5 billion to cybercrime with financial service institutions, government, service providers including betting and Fin techs as well as healthcare and hospitality sectors being the most affected.
About Ksh8.9 billion was incurred as a cost of direct consequence of cyber crime in direct loss of money, confidential records as well as compensation to victims and fines paid to regulatory bodies. On the other hand Ksh20.6 billion was incurred in anticipation of cyber crime and reputational damage to firms.
The Auditor General is calling for capacity building among institutions to enhance their ability to anticipate, detect and contain cyber threats.
The Cyber Security Bill 2018 and the Data Protection Bill 2018 are backed to boost cyber security.
Currently, Kenya has 1,700 proficient cyber security professionals.
