COVID-19 catapulted the world into a predominantly online shopping market on an unparalleled level to any event witnessed before in modern times. While some of us wouldn’t think twice about making online transactions, in developing countries these can be even more susceptible to fraudulent attacks due to insecure networks.
In 2020, INTERPOL released a report highlighting the severity of online organized crime in Africa, indicating that “online crime presents a bigger security threat for law enforcement than ever before”. Although just 28% of Africans used the internet back in 2019, compared to 83% in Europe, this has not stopped the growth of criminal activities. In fact, the cost of cyberfraud doubled between 2017 and 2018, to the tune of $6.5million US.
The risk of falling victim to cyberfraud in Africa is one of the highest in the world. It’s this risk that inspired the collaboration between many public and private partners in Luxembourg, including SnT, in the creation of not-for-profit consortium Cyber4Dev. Last week, their efforts resulted in the launch of the African Cybersecurity Resource Center for Financial Inclusion (ACRC), a project that will see them help millions of vulnerable people alongside thousands of banking institutions across Africa.
Paperjam featured the announcement last week, sharing how Luxembourg is at the heart of African cybersecurity.
Cyber4Dev has brought together experts from SnT, securitymadein.lu, the Cybersecurity Agency for the Luxembourg Economy and Municipalities, Excellium Services SA and Suricate Solutions in Senegal. It is a European Union project designed to promote cyber-resilience and cybersecurity, with a multi-million Euro investment backing behind it. In March, the African Development Bank allocated a grant of $2million to open the centre.
Having worked on the project, SnT’s Prof. Tegawendé Bissyande shared: “We are very excited to join forces with Cyber4Dev to tackle cybersecurity challenges in Africa on the critical domain of financial services in developing countries. We expect to develop innovative techniques at the ACRC Centre to tackle cyberfraud for the local industry”.