CYBERCRIME IS AFFECTING YOUR BUSINESS

A new study reveals spam, viruses, phishing and credit-card fraud have become serious issues for small- to medium-sized businesses in Ireland, costing approximately $300 million yearly, according to the Irish Examiner.
After conducting a survey of more than 600 companies, the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association concluded cyber crime has become a growing problem. Unless something is done to address the situation, companies will continue seeing a dramatic rise in business costs.
Nearly 70 percent of companies reported being a victim of cyber crime in the last year. Nearly all respondents had been affected by spam, almost half (54 percent) by phishing, 51 percent from virus infection, and 13 percent had experienced credit-card fraud.

Kenya and Africa at large are not far from this. Cybersecurity experts estimate that 80 percent of computers on the African continent are already infected with viruses and other malicious software, according to Foreign Policy. The combination of housing the world’s most vulnerable computers and a majority of a population lacking basic knowledge of IT makes the computers easy targets for skilled botnet operators and hackers.

Also, with the exception of Egypt and South Africa, most African countries lack the legal infrastructure to prosecute, or even stop the rise in cyber crime. Despite commitments made at a Regional Cybersecurity Forum for Africa and Arab states held last year, there is little coordination between countries on how to deal with cybersecurity.

While the continent as a whole is lagging behind in cybersecurity, there are a few countries that have made advancements. Tunisia, for example, has created the first national security institute in Africa, and Nigeria has developed a national cybersecurity initiative aimed at raising awareness and battling online fraud.

It is thus important to boost security in your cyber world using anti-virus software , spam-filtering software and hardware firewalls. It is also important for companies to hire IT professionals for guaranteed security.