Africa accounts for 60 out of the 130 mobile money systems in the world, said the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as mobile ticketing, insurance, charitable donations, as well as fee payments for health and education services are now possible via mobile phones in Africa.
Mr. Brahima Sanou, director, Telecommunication Development Bureau, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) disclosed, adding that, specifically, in Africa there are transformative opportunities skyrocketing mobile growth, owing to recent figures where Africa leads the world in mobile money services.
Sanou who spoke through his Deputy, Mr Philippe Metzger, at World Cybersecurity Conference held in Abuja, also said that the world is living through a particularly exciting period in human history, the one that is witnessing the development and continuous growth of global communications.
“We are close to seeing as many mobile cellular subscriptions as there are people on the planet, and by the end of this year some 2.7 billion people will be using the Internet; with 2.1 billion active mobile-broadband subscriptions. This means, of course, that many more need to be connected”.
According to the director, internet is becoming a global resource and a basic commodity, as well as an indispensable tool for exchange and learning and the security challenges inclusive. Thus, “Cyber” is becoming one of ten most used prefixes used nowadays.
As internet and the use of ICTs are growing, individuals, businesses and nations are also experiencing the negative social and financial impacts from their misuse.
Cyber threats represent a major challenge to the economic and national well-being of everyone, everywhere and anytime.
“In a nutshell, the current global cybersecurity landscape can be described as follows: Cybercriminals are becoming more skilled – both at penetrating organizations and at avoiding detection by IT professionals and law enforcement agencies; hacker groups are increasingly trying to profit – by abusing legitimate online revenue sources such as online advertising; as mobile technology and its use continue to grow worldwide, such platforms will become ever more tempting targets for cybercriminals and new generation of young social networkers are having a different attitude towards protecting and sharing information: They are more likely to reveal personal data to other parties through social networking sites, thus increasing the likelihood of becoming cyber-victims”.
Sanou added that a recent worrying trend is the dramatic increase of cybercrime tools available on the market.
These include “Crime-ware” services such as purchasing customized email lists for spamming; ransom-ware services that restrict users from conducting further activity until they pay up; or renting out botnets for launching attacks can be found on the web at a relatively low price.
In other facts he shared with participants at the conference, he said, “Web attacks in 2012 were up 30% compared to web attacks in 2011, and malware targeting mobile phones grew by 58%.
“Annual losses of over 110 billion dollars are being caused by cybercrime, with over 550 million adults worldwide experiencing some form of cybercrime last year.
“Almost half of the teenagers aged 13 to 17 report that they have experienced some sort of cyber-bullying in the past year; and three quarters of young people involved in aggressive sexual solicitations in the real world met their aggressors online”.
The ITU director, Telecommunication Development Bureau, lamented that the problem is getting worse. “By the time I have finished this address, at least another ten thousand people around the world will have become new victims of cybercrime”.