[kictanet] Arusha to host continental conference on cyber crime

[Matunda Nyanchama]

Arusha to host continental conference on cyber crime
By Lusekelo Philemon
9th May 2011
Arusha is set to host the second Africa forensic conference to be held from May 
24 to 26 this year with a special focus on efforts being made to curb the 
problem in the East African region.
Organisers of the forum have said that the meeting would address cyber-related 
crimes by providing forensic accounting skills to corporate officials, 
anti-corruption watchdogs, police auditors, accountants and high-ranked 
officials.
Briefing reporters here on Saturday, International Coordinator and 
Representative for Africa of the Forensic Certified Public Accountants Sosthenes 
Bichanga said the forum would be convened in response to increasing on-line 
crimes in the continent.
He said that in recent years, Africa experienced unprecedented growth of science 
and technology; as a result unscrupulous people apply new technology in stealing 
money from public or private institutions.
He explained that cases of fraud and cyber-crime had been costing East African 
countries billions of dollars, but the rackets remain shrouded in secrecy 
because the affected companies prefer to suffer in silence, 'safeguarding' their 
reputations.
“With improving security measures, racketeers no longer use weapons or other 
physical means to conduct their transgressions. The trend now is shifting from 
this form of tangible crime to brain-driven or virtual ones,” he said.
According to the expert, Nigeria is a leading country for initiating cyber-crime 
schemes that had been causing huge monetary losses from local companies, 
corporate institutions, banks and individuals in especially the East African 
region.
“Our recent research estimates that over 6 per cent of the total annual income 
and revenue collection by an organisation which does not take the fight against 
fraud, cyber-crime or corruption is lost. Some of these institutions make 
billions of money,” he said, adding that the combined loss suffered by the East 
African member states may add up to 30 per cent of their total losses which 
spells economic disaster for the region.
The related virtual crimes include online schemes as carried out mostly by 
Nigerians, dubious accounting computer and internet anchored cyber-crime through 
automatic teller machines (ATM).
Bichanga further disclosed that in Kenya alone it has been discovered that a 
single bank would lose Ksh 25 million (about 350 million/-) per year, just 
through ATM fraudsters.
The expert added that a similar case applies to other financial institutions 
around East Africa, but they all keep mum trying to safeguard their reputations.
“Every day there seems to be another major headline about fraudulent schemes, 
scandals, corruption schemes, civil litigation, disputes in divorce and 
corporate turmoil. As a result, there’s never been a bigger demand for forensic 
accounting skills,” said James Anyoka, coordinator of the forthcoming forum.
He said the conference is designed to prepare delegates with cutting-edge 
training and networking resources to effectively handle cyber 
crimes.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matunda Nyanchama, PhD, CISSP; mnyanchama at aganoconsulting.com
Agano Consulting Inc.;  www.aganoconsulting.com; Twitter: nmatunda;  Skype: 
okiambe
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Be prepared to face ICT Security failures & know how to respond when they 
happen! 

Call: +1-888-587-1150 or info at aganoconsulting.com
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On 
my desk I have a workstation…" - Anonymous
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This e-mail, including attachments, may be privileged and may contain 
confidential or proprietary information intended only for the addressee(s). Any 
other distribution, copying, use, or disclosure is unauthorized and strictly 
prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender 
immediately by reply e-mail and permanently delete the message, including any 
attachments, without making a copy. Thank you.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20110513/55eb66c7/attachment.htm>