Cyber Crime in Kenya

www.bettersms.net hacked!

www.bettersms.net hacked!


A couple of days ago I was at my local – by local I mean not one of those fancy places in Westlands – barber shop when suddenly two policeman came in and arrested one of the barbers. The crime? Cyber crime (their words). The barber shop offers phone charging services and , apparently, this one barber had figured out how to get into people’s phones when they were charging. He then accessed their Safaricom Bonga points and sent them to himself.

Now, I know the guy pretty well. He hasn’t been to any college or university …. if a guy such as him is into cyber crime, then what of those educated to the highest levels of computer science?

Just recently, I cam across this. Yes. Someone somehow accessed Classic FM’s text messages system and leaked some (very sensitive) text messages to the public. If you have ever sent a text message to Classic FM then you better check if your message has been ‘leaked’. Otherwise you may be surprised to find that your husband figured out what you have been telling Classic about him.

The state of cyber security in Kenya is simply woeful. It seems everyone wants to get online, build fancy websites and all sorts of ‘apps’ but no one wants to invest in basic security. Take the case of the screenshot above which is from www.bettersms.net – they got violated publicly and embarrassed. Just recently, Idd Salim talked about the shockingly lacking security in our local online banking sites.

What’s all this leading to? If it hasn’t happened yet, someone will end up losing a lot of money that will affect a lot of people. Don’t let that be you, sawa?


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