Cybercrime: new approach
Date: October 21, 2005Source: thisdayonline.com
It may be difficult to reveal the statistics to determine the amount of money being lost by individuals, companies, and government corporations in cybercrime. But there are indications to examine the extent of damage.
A technology writer and E-trader in Information, Ebooks, Matthew White , disclosed to THISDAY at the African Computing and Telecommunication (ACT) 2005 summit that the United States National Computer Security Centre reported a sharp rise in cybercrimes and other information security breaches.
Of the 520 large US corporations, government agencies and universities that responded, he said an average of 64% reported intrusion.
As Nigerians rush for the different credit cards which are fast gaining inroads into the country, it is being estimated that credit card fraud in online transactions could cost businesses as much as $60 billion this year, according to reseach firm, Financial Insights.
There are opportunities to rip people off in business, although they do not to be aware that technology can be used to stem it.
Some executives are unaware of the huge losses they stand to incur because they only worry about the hacker outside.
The credit card companies and banks are not doing a lot to combat fraud due to the fact that their own losses through fraud are minimal and covered by insurance.
Besides the bank frauds, the internet is virtually a global state, with its own economy and digicash, and is starting to change the way the world economy functions.
Sometimes, this will only change when companies begin to market their services on the basis that their anti-fraud systems are better than those of their competitors.
Countries like Nigeria, Indonesia, Kenya and South Africa rarely report such crimes but it is estimated by experts that the rate is extraordinarily high.
By the end of this year, direct sales over the Internet are expected to reach $5 trillion in the United States and Europe but in Africa, there is no proper estimate.
In a bid to tackle this crime, the International Biometric Group (IBG), a non-profit organisation, has conducted a number of comprehensive market reports, the latest of which covers the period up to 2007.
In the report, fingerprint-based technologies, including both fingerscan and Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS), are estimated to have accounted for $467m of 2002 industry revenue, by far the largest technology segment.
The year 2004 figures show that fingerscan continues to be the leading biometric technology in terms of market share and commands nearly 50% of non-AFIS biometric revenue. If you add AFIS, fingerprints massively dominate biometrics applications.
Biometrics allows fingerprints technology to make it difficult for anybody to assess one's private computer.
Logical access control entails access to personal computers, networks, applications and on-line systems. It is noted that a wide number of applications have already been identified in the space for corporate networks, authentication for internet banking, encryption and decryption of files and folders and other password replacement applications.
Password replacement, a major drive as password management is currently a significant cost factor that can be reduced significantly through the use of biometrics instead of passwords, with the added benefit of elevating the level of security.
Interestingly, biometrics has emerged as a world-wide identification and verification solution, with large-scale deployments underway or already present in South Africa, Chile, Malaysia, Central America, Australia and USA. Except Nigeria, everywhere in the world has seen a major biometric deployment.
It is necessary to note that banks’ losses on International flow fund are high because of lack of zeal to prosecute cybercrime criminals.
Indeed, Nigeria must start protecting her citizens against crimes before it becomes too difficult.
She has to start implementing this by taking steps to secure themselves against criminally intentioned insiders or resign to suffering significant losses from insider crimes because the insider chances of getting caught, given the current state of protection, are minimal although some do get caught.
Some countries and high networth companies use Sagem fingerprint technology in the pay-out of more than 3 million pension and grants which have curbed leakages in pension offices
However, It has been discovered that fingerprint technology is fast, effective and user friendly. It is body- clocking savings used for the access control.
Life Cycle costing sees that fingerprint can save you money and also keep your phone save.
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