Ngabo Nankonde on January 22, 2020 Social Media Complaints handled by ZICTA in 2019

Ngabo Nankonde

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 22, 2020
SOCIAL MEDIA RELATED COMPLAINTS HANDLED BY ZICTA IN 2019

The Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) observed a rise in the number of Cybercrime incidents in Zambia going by the Cyber Matrix Database which is used to profile the perpetrators, victims and the possible vulnerability used in committing different cybercrimes.
This increase could be attributed to the rapid adoption and uptake in mobile and internet services in Zambia, coupled with globalisation which has created opportunities for both users and criminals. The rapid technological advancements have led to an increase in cybercrimes such as spamming, phishing, identity theft, online scams, pornography, online violence, online defamation, cyberbullying, computer related fraud, and computer related forgery and other interrelated crimes.
Since January 2019, ZICTA recorded 791 complaints regarding social media abuse. Below are the statistics of cases recorded per month.

Minister of Transport and Communications Mutotwe Kafwaya

CYBER CASES RECEIVED
300
252
250
200
150
100
5023 21 32 24 23 25 20 30 28
8
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
The Authority is cognizant of the fact that while the 791 are the cases that has been reported to ZICTA, there were other cases that consumers experienced in 2019 which were not reported to the Authority.
Comparatively, January and February recorded the highest numbers of cybercrime compared to a combined total of the remaining months. This could be attributed to the fact that mobile money scams which were more rampant between December 2018 and February 2019.
Thereafter, there was a recorded substantial reduction in the number of cases due to massive awareness programmes conducted by the Authority and other like-minded institutions such as Zambia Police Service.
The prevalence of social media usage and the ability to interact anonymously were two of the biggest reasons why cybercrimes on social networking sites went wild in Zambia.
It was also observed that pornography-related cases were the most reported followed by cyber bullying. Below are the most popular types of attacks perpetrated on social media networks which were recorded.
CASE TYPE Number
Identity theft 31
Hacking of social media accounts 28
Blackmail 40
Cyber bullying 47
Mobile Scam 503
Online defamation 31
Obscene /Pornography 70
Fake News 55
Sextortion 14
TOTAL 791
It is worth noting that about 74% of the cases logged in were from 209 women, while only 64 men lodged in their complaints. The reason for the gender variation in the number of people who lodged in complaints was partly because women appeared more vulnerable than men on various social media platforms.
Social platform attacks targeted websites with large user bases such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram. These social platform attacks were able to breach users’ accounts by stealing their authentication credentials upon log-in. This information was then used to discreetly pull personal data from users’ online friends and colleagues.
The breakdown of number of attacks per social media platform were as follows; Facebook – 120, WhatsApp – 53, SMS – 28, Email – 10, Voice – 8, Twitter – 2 while Youtube had 0.
The statistic showed that most victims were those that uses the platform for social networking and leisure. The age group which is mostly vurnerable were from the age group of 22 to 25, 36 to 40 and 16 to 21 as indicated in the graph below;
Age Group No. of Complaints
16 – 21 60
22 – 25 68
26 – 30 10
31 – 35 38
36 – 40 68
Above 40 22
Going forward, the Authority expects members of the general public to exercise maximum personal responsibility, self-regulation as well as respect for other users when using social media platforms.

Issued By:

Ngabo Nankonde (Ms)
Manager – Corporate Communications Press Contact:
Phone: +260 211 378200
Email: complaints@zicta.zm/info@zicta.zm
Facebook: ZICTA FACEBOOK
Twitter: ZICTAICP
Website: www.zicta.zm

Hanford  Chaaba   Corporate Communications Officer
Head Office: ||Lusaka – Lusaka
General Lines:+260 211 378200/ 241236/ 244427 Extension: 3123
Mobile: Email: hchaaba@zicta.zm Website:http://www.zicta.zm

A Regulator advancing the nation to a digital society through the values:
Integrity, Transparency, Innovation, Teamwork, Fairness, Excellence, Effectiveness & Accountability

Help protect our Children. Report any online sexual abuses or violence against children at https://report.iwf.org.uk/zm. For information call 116 or 7070

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