By Mungai Regina
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 13 – You do not have to walk into a dark alley to become a victim of crime. Sometimes, all it takes is answering your phone.
The message may look ordinary. The caller may sound convincing. The M-Pesa notification may appear genuine. The person on the other end may confidently introduce themselves as your bank, mobile provider or a government agency. Yet, within minutes, a carefully constructed deception can leave a victim counting the cost.
This is the changing face of crime in the digital age. As more of our lives, finances and interactions move online, the spaces in which criminals operate are changing too.
Cybersecurity Awareness Month, observed every October, provides an important opportunity to pause and consider this shift as an emerging dimension of crime prevention and public safety.
The question, therefore, is no longer whether we are connected. It is whether we are sufficiently prepared to protect ourselves in a world where the next threat may not be waiting around the corner, but sitting in the palm of our hand.
Most of us believe that cybercrime, owing to its overly technical terminology, is someone else’s problem; essentially, something that happens to companies, governments, or perhaps to individuals sitting behind a laptop. The reality is far closer to home. It happens to the teacher, the boda boda guy, the shop owner, the grandmother, and the student, or even probably to you or someone you know too well.
The National Crime Research Centre (NCRC) is the state body mandated to study crime, its causes, patterns, and prevention in Kenya. In 2023, it conducted a national study on ICT crimes and offences, and the findings illustrate an overview that every Kenyan should actually see. The subsequent data is not social media hysteria or speculation but what Kenyan themselves reported.
A staggering 84.8 % of respondents said they had experienced some form of ICT crime in the last 24 months, by the time of the study. This is just about 80% of the population. To make it even easier to comprehend, that is eight out of ten people. 67.5 % considered the prevalence of ICT crimes to be high when asked about the level of severity of the challenge. Identity theft and impersonation was the most frequently reported occurrence, with 58.2 % of respondents remarking they had experienced it, followed by computer fraud at 53.7 %. At 38.5 % was the interception of electronic messages or money transfers, followed by cyber harassment at 27.3 % and phishing and vishing (fake calls and messages) at 23.5 %. Where does it hit hardest? The financial sector stood at the forefront at 68.4 %, with digital money transfer platforms coming in at 26.5 %. Notably, money attracts criminals.
Now, who is responsible, and who bears the consequences? Half of the respondents (50.1 %) identified young people as perpetrators while 43.9 % of respondents identified ICT experts. Rogue or unethical workers within organizations and inmates were also singled out. The people on the receiving end are often the most vulnerable. The elderly were identified as the top victims at 39.4 %, uninformed or illiterate (on matters ICT, especially) at 28.2 % and children at 12.8 %. Looking at the ways in which criminals reach their targets, the response was quite appalling: phone calls and text messages. Being “online” does not have to be a prerequisite requirement to be a target. All that’s required is a phone number.
The damage cannot be measured in terms of money alone, even though in most cases it starts with the money. 92.4 % stated they suffered a financial loss. An additional 68.6 % experienced psychological distress, 60.1 % lost property, 50.5 % had their privacy violated, and 46.7 % lost data. People also reported loss of jobs, reputation and blackmail. But why is this happening? The respondents were categorical; attributing it to unemployment, underemployment, poverty, financial greed, and lack of literacy in ICT. With that, cybercrime in Kenya, appears to be, not only technology issue but an economic and social one that transits via technology.
Kenya is a more digital world than ever before. We use phones to do banking, run businesses on WhatsApp, pay school fees online and apply for jobs by e-mail or online portals. All these conveniences are doorways for scammers. The scams documented in the NCRC 2023 study have not gone away but have become smarter, faster and more convincing. So, what do we do? First, treat any unsolicited call, link or message requesting your PIN, password or M-Pesa code as a trap. Such sensitive details will never be asked for by any real bank or service provider. Secondly, enable two-step verification on your email, social media, and banking apps today. Thirdly, have strong passwords and do not share them to anyone. Fourthly, create awareness on cybersecurity issues to children, grandparents and parents. They are among the most targeted, and a five-minute conversation could save them their lives. Last but not least, report any suspicious activity because a criminal’s greatest asset is silence.
Cybersecurity is no longer someone else’s problem, nor is it a concern reserved for technology experts. It is part of how we protect our homes, our livelihoods, our identities and one another. Let this be the Cybersecurity Awareness Month where awareness becomes action, vigilance becomes habit, and the next victim is not you or someone you love.
Mungai Regina is a researcher at National Crime Research Centre.
