Uganda loses $42 million a year in cybercrime

As the whole world gets taken up in the wave of internet usage, cyber security has become another threat and risk that both individuals and companies may need insurance cover to mitigate the risks.

The available data shows that there are increasing cases related to cybercrime and 99% of these cases aren't reported despite the fact that offenders ask for ransom from the victims.

Cyber risk has become a leading threat for many organisations due to the rapid internet growth and spread of ICT infrastructure.

Hacked devices, crashed websites, breached networks, denial of service, copied emails, stolen credit card data among other fraud-like ICT incidents have become commonplace.

The available date indicates that Uganda loses over $42 million to cybercrime annually as per the Uganda Cyber Security Report 2017.

No organisation is assured of total security from cyber risk.

Maurice Amogola, the Minet Uganda chief executive officer, noted that everyone was vulnerable to cyber-attacks so long as they used computers and phones, especially smartphones hence calls for companies and individuals to insure cyber as a risk.

"The $42 million only represents a fraction of cybercrime loss in Uganda. The real cost of cybercrime could be much  higher," Amogola said.

Winnie Kiwuwa, the Chief Operations Officer, at Minet Ltd Uganda said there is a new trend where offenders ask for bitcoins as a form of ransom from the victims.

Cyber Insurance was launched in Uganda two years ago, but it never took off. Minet is now taking a collaborative approach to create awareness, work with clients to assess, analyse and mitigate the risk.

“While technology keeps growing and evolving every day, our legal regime is hardly shifting. We need the Data Protection and Privacy Bill to quickly be passed into law so that we can sufficiently protect ourselves from cyber risk,” Amogola said.