Cyber crime is a human creation; they only can bring it to heel

The rise in the spate of cyber crimes worldwide has been the bane of developed countries since the advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into the main stream business community.

Friday, August 23, 2013

The rise in the spate of cyber crimes worldwide has been the bane of developed countries since the advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into the main stream business community.The bid to ease doing business has opened floodgates of opportunities for cyber thieves who always seem to be a step ahead of law enforcers; one loophole in plugged, two more appear, to the extent that it has become a lost war in advance.Last year, over $500 billion is said to have been lost internationally through cyber crimes and the end is nowhere in sight. Here in Rwanda, a new wave of the crime has begun to lift its head but authorities have taken notice.With 12 banks in Rwanda losing less than US$3 million last year and 76 suspects arrested, it would seem to be just a drop in the ocean compared to other countries in the region and beyond, but by our economic standards, it is a sizeable chunk that could have been put to better use.The challenge that our country faces is how to keep abreast with technological advances on the one hand, and able to safe guard the cyber space on the other. It is not enough to entrust our computers with all our chores, the human element should also be a vital part.Even though robots have replaced many workers in industrial production, they cannot perform alone without humans programming them. The same goes for cyber crime; computers cannot replace human reasoning that created them, so why should they take the upper hand?