Cyber crime still a major challenge

Cyber crime is the most dangerous threat and still a big challenge in the region, according to George Kiseka, a representative of International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) regional office Nairobi, Kenya.Kiseka was speaking Monday at the opening of a three-day Interpol workshop on cyber crime which is underway at Rwanda National Police (RNP) premises.Interpol is the world’s largest international police organisation, with 190 member countries, that facilitates international police cooperation in dealing with cross border crimes.“Much as we must embrace modern information technology systems to drive our financial operations, cyber related crimes in the areas of money transfers, ATM banking, internet frauds, among others, come along,” he said.“Cyber crime is still a big challenge in the region. We need everybody to be aware of this crime and people must be careful whenever they are transacting their businesses using modern technologies”.The workshop that brought together 18 Interpol officers from Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania, will focus on providing a platform to police officers where they will share knowledge and skills from each other on how to handle electronic scene of crime investigations such as Internet crime, mobile banking crime, among others.Kiseka stated that the workshop will empower the officers, who are investigators and prosecutors, to be able to handle the crimes that are rampant due to the introduction of modern technologies.“This is a transnational crime that needs concerted efforts among Interpol officers,” he noted.According to a survey conducted by Deloitte last year, banks in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia lose $245 million in cyber fraud.The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Stanley Nsabimana, urged the participants to fully understand the techniques and skills needed in tracking down cyber crime.“This is an opportune moment of sharing best practices in cyber crime investigation and laying strategies to combat them,” he notedSpeaking to The New Times, Ismael Baguma, the Director of Interpol at RNP, said the scale of cyber crime is still low but that it would not stop them from fighting the vice.“Despite the fact that the rate of cyber crime in our country is still low, we cannot just sit down and think that we are safe, “he said.“We are starting to register cyber crime cases. So we find this workshop very important to enable our police officers acquire the knowledge and skills to track these vices.Police Spokesperson, Theos Badege, said about six cases of cyber related crimes were registered last year.The forum that is being held on a rotational basis was first held in Uganda.