In 2020, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) stopped a Sh2 billion attempted fraud on its banking system. Last year, as the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the country, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) stopped a Sh2 billion attempted fraud on its banking system.
“In 2020, the Group successfully prevented a theft of Sh2 billion, in attempted fraud, thanks to our robust cybersecurity systems,” revealed KCB without giving much details.
The bank made the revelation through its sustainability report, which says it prevented 3,624 other cyberattacks and managed to stop 663 attempted fraud cases.
Increased use of mobile and Internet banking have exposed bank customers to cybercrime, especially fraud and phishing attacks.
In 2019, The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) published posters with the faces and names of 130 suspects wanted for hacking into bank accounts in Kenya.
It is hard to quantify how much has been lost to online hacking with banks not readily giving the information but according to the police, there are hundreds of cases and billions of shillings lost in the last year alone.
Tactics used by hackers
Cases where links are widely circulated promising free airtime, money and other products have been used in phishing attacks to collect personal data and use it to siphon cash.
Phishing happens where criminals send out legitimate-looking e-mails from trustworthy websites requesting personal and financial details from unsuspecting people.
They direct you to counterfeit web pages that look identical to the companies’ sites in order to fool you into submitting personal or financial data and passwords.
The scammer will then steal your identity and can access your account and transfer money to their accounts or make online purchases. Safety Precautions There are some safety precautions you as an individual can take to ensure that you do not lose your hard earned money.First you have avoid clicking on links sent to you via email or any other messaging platform.Second is to avoid logging into Wi-Fi networks that are open without security measures.Finally you must vet and interrogate all applications before downloading them on to your phone as they might be used to capture your information.
