Cybercrimes spiked globally over the past pandemic years. South Africa has been particularly hard-hit and is rising in the ranks of countries in the world most impacted by cybercrime. This was not unexpected, criminals typically rise to the fore in turbulent times looking to take advantage of large-scale disruptions, stressors and distractions. The sudden pivot to remote working exposed businesses to unforeseen risks; the fear-driven seeking of Covid information led individuals into waiting for phishing traps; breath-taking ransomware attacks and bold data breaches compromised the personal data of millions of South Africans.
It would be a mistake to think that these are somehow ‘victimless’ crimes; businesses suffer not just serious financial, but also severe reputational damage; some never recover. Individuals lose their hard-earned money, and sometimes their identities. Breached data has a snowballing effect because it is frequently used to commit further cybercrimes such as identity theft, phishing and government impersonation scams.
In the lead up to tax season, SARS (South African Revenue Services) has already warned of a sharp increase in scams targeting taxpayers aimed at getting us to disclose personal information that can be used to defraud us, as well as SARS.
While the disaster of the pandemic has somewhat abated, economic woes are accumulating globally; geopolitics remains on a knife-edge with war in Europe ongoing and a worldwide food catastrophe is…
