Cape Town - There are a number of indications that government is clamping down on cyber criminals, according to Richard Keymer, head of pre-sales at SecureData Africa. He commented on the arrest of two of Eskom’s IT staff and an accomplice attempting to use key-logging malware in an attempted R3.5bn cyber heist. While it is concerning that Eskom staff had the opportunity to install the malware in the first place, there are a number of positives that indicate government is clamping down on cyber criminals, he said. “Firstly it is promising that Hawks’ Electronic Crime Unit of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation was involved in the investigation. This is a big step in the right direction and sends a definite message that government are taking cyber-crime seriously. Also promising to him is the fact that this has been publicly released. Often these type of incidences are never spoken of and instead covered up, according to Keymer. Only through publicly exposing these attempted crimes can we reinforce the need for all organisations to continually monitor and upgrade their security measures,” he said. Another positive for Keymer is the charges brought against the suspects. “It is good to see that in addition to fraud and corruption they are also being charged for contravening the Electronic Communication and Transactions Act of 2002. This is a clear move by government to indicate its intention to use legislation to the fullest in preventing the abuse of information systems,” he said. Despite these positives, Keymer thinks this incident again highlights the need for organisations to continually monitor and upgrade their security measures. “Here cyber criminals continue to modify known viruses making them undetectable to the current versions of anti-virus software in use. It is thus essential that anti-malware software is regularly updated particularly in organisations that hold large databases of sensitive data,” he said. “System administrators together with application administrators should not be able to freely access all data on the network. It is essential that their access be limited to only what they are required to use to fulfil their job requirements. In addition to controlling admin rights it is just as important, in his view, for organisations to continually monitor network traffic.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 07:11:57 +0000
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