African experts grapple with rising cybercrime

Ten Central African states are exploring new ways to fight cybercrime after a new wave of identity theft, credit card fraud and corporate hacking brought the issue to the forefront.

Cybersecurity experts met in Cameroon to discuss episode of cybercrime, from tapping ATM machines to the diversion of funds online from corporate bank accounts.

{mosads}Marcel Ambiana Belingue of the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organization said technological carelessness by government officials is also a threat to cybersecurity.

“You have government civil servants who lose USB sticks with key information as a result of inefficiency within governments or the efficiency of the attackers,” Ambiana said.

“You personally may be logged on to a Wi-Fi network and you have no idea that the person next to you is actually logging everything you are doing. Every website that you are logging on to, they make a copy, a ghost copy of your user name and password in real time and you have no idea it is occurring.” His comments were reported by the Voice of America.

The experts represented the 10 member states of the Economic Community of Central African States.

Africa has been called a new safe harbor for cybercriminals by some experts, who point to the lack of protections on many of the continent’s computers as a key vulnerability.