12/06/2012

IDG Connect Dan Swinhoe (Africa)- Kenya: A Cyber-Criminals East African Holiday Destination

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Dan Swinhoe (Africa)- Kenya: A Cyber-Criminals East African Holiday Destination

Posted b y Dan Swinhoe Company IDG Connect 06/11/2012

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Kenya is fast b ecoming a major player in the IT sector. East Africa's b iggest economy has undergone something of an IT revolution in recent years, with the sector outperforming other more traditional ventures such as agriculture and manufacturing for a few years now. Mob ile sub scriptions actually outnumb er adults in the country, and as with many markets, the rise of Kenya's Generation Y, comb ined with affordab le smartphones, internet and social media have all b een a key influence on this rise. Of the 17 million people on the internet, six million are mob ile internet users, and that numb er is rising steeply. Kenya seems to b e going towards a wholly mob ile internet set up. But perhaps b ecause so few people are hooked up at home (around 2% have home computers) this could b e the reason Kenya is vulnerab le and open to attacks. Open Season for Hackers Recently workers from the Kaspersky Lab said 20% of computers b eing used in Kenya are vulnerab le to viruses, and the numb er is rising. They attrib uted 17% of that to the use of free software downloaded from the internet, saying ignoring updates left them vulnerab le, and pointed to the government to create proper regulations on cyb er-crime. Meanwhile a research paper on Kenyan SMBs found some very worrying statistics. Less than half felt they had documented Information Security policy, roughly the same amount thought staff were properly trained to secure their computers properly at all times, less than half had a b usiness continuity plan in the event of a disaster, while almost half weren't aware of international information security standards availab le for organizations to adopt. This level of can only b e describ ed as negligence and ignorance is dangerous, especially when novice hackers are targeting the country for fun and succeeding every time. Proper training and b usiness strategies are key. But it's not just ignorance and the possib ility; Kenya's security prob lems are very real.Forensic experts are claiming cyb er-crime poses the b iggest challenge to organizations and the police, and already costs Kenya Almost Sh3 b illion (23 million) every year. Organizations are b eing urged to employ Forensic Certified Pub lic Accountants (FCPA) to try and counter the prob lem. Aside from cyb er-crime, your average hacktivists' are targeting Kenya for fun and practice. Last year an Indonesian student-hacker known as direxer took down 103 government of Kenya web sites overnight. Part of an online Indonesian security forum known as Forum Code Security, direxer said he took down the web sites following tutorials from the forum. That followed a year after another hacker attacked and disab led the official police site and two university hacks, one to change exam results and another to clear student fees. Clearly this should cause concern. If government and academic institutional sites are b eing hacked so easily, there's nothing to say local b usinesses are in any more of a secure position. Luckily this b log offers some simple advice for b asic security b ut there are some serious questions that need answering, not b y b logs b ut b y the government and the private sector to really address what is a lack of adequate protection. Fighting Back The b usiness level reponses so far have seen Techno Brain, an IT solutions company, starting to offer hacking US: How the upcoming elections could affect the technology industry http://t.co/25Lcgq54 Glob al: Faceb ook officially launches App Center http://t.co/o0KCQVYT Follow idgconnect on Twitter Asia: Hacking group Anonymous protest censorship in India http://t.co/YyDSNSIf Rub ens da Silva 06-11-2012
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Susan Rousseau (South Africa) - Salary Increases in the South African IT Industry What are Companies Paying IT Staff in 2012?
Appreciate the article b ut it is high time that a survey is done to gauge the reality of the South African ICT salary market.

Brandon Faber (South Africa) - How to Avoid Those 'Smack Your Forehead with a Plank' IT Moments
Some really useful information here, and I'll b e downloading the rest of the paper. But I'd appreciate some advice on how to stop all this losing of data.... Bob 06-06-2012

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South Africa: What are companies paying IT staff in SA? http://t.co/GH9TM5Gj

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IDG Connect Dan Swinhoe (Africa)- Kenya: A Cyber-Criminals East African Holiday Destination
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forensic courses to b anks, government agencies and other corporates, while Kenya Methodist University (KeMU) launched string of professional courses in IT security, in an attempt to plug some of the holes these attacks have highlighted. The government is moving in the right direction too. Last year they set up their own Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) to comb at the prob lem, which aims to deal with incidents, promote security, issue warnings, and generally try to address the issues the country has with security and b ring it up to scratch with the rest of the world. The government is also making some not so great decisions. Its new Information Protection b ill has b een lab eled flawed' b y the Kenya chapter of the international b ody for professionals in audit and information security (ISACA), who said it was a step in the right direction b ut left holes open for misuse, while new monitoring devices installed b y the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) are worryingly Big Brother. Though they promise they are for assisting in early detection and prevention of cyb er-crime incidents, and have said, "It is a passive system and not a tool for spying on users. The system cannot b e used to b lock access to the internet at all," the monitoring of the pub lic web traffic could b e very worrying for people. Clearly Kenya has some serious security issues that need addressing. This isn't to say they are the only victims, as seen b y the recent attacks on the likes of Sony and LinkedIn, b ut major government site b eing b rought down b y a lone student isn't good enough b y any stretch of the imagination. A lack of knowledge and skilled workers also need to b e tackled, otherwise East Africa's b iggest economy may b e b ecome a hacker's paradise.

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