A thousand people have been arrested in 19 African countries in a major operation against cybercrime, Interpol announced on 26 November 2024. The international criminal police organisation conducted the operation with AFRIPOL from the beginning of September to the end of October. The operation also led to the dismantling of a large number of malicious networks: 134,000 infrastructures in all.

Criminal networks behind ransomware, compromised emails, digital extortion and online scams were targeted in this operation, named Serengeti.

35,000 victims identified

In detail, eight people were arrested in Senegal for setting up an online PONZI system, a fraudulent financial scheme worth $6 million that claimed more than 1,800 victims.

In Cameroon, a group operating a multi-level marketing scam was dismantled. The group offered to pay contributions in exchange for promises of jobs or training. But once in Cameroon, the people who had paid were held captive and forced to lure others into the system.

Another criminal group operating internationally was also dismantled in Luanda, Angola. It was operating a virtual casino that mainly targeted Nigerian and Brazilian players.

In Kenya, Operation Serengeti solved a case of online credit card fraud.

In total, more than 35,000 victims were identified, mainly in Africa and Europe, during this large-scale operation, carried out with the help of Internet service providers. According to Interpol, ISPs played an essential role, particularly through the sharing of information.

Africa wakes up to the dangers of cybercrime

In Europe, October is cyber security awareness month. Last year, computer crime caused losses of more than 1,000 billion dollars worldwide. In Africa, businesses are only just beginning to realise the dangers and the need to protect their IT systems.

Africa is in the midst of a digital revolution. And in recent years, the dangers associated with this revolution have been growing. ‘In 2020, 490 billion dollars passed through mobile money. Unfortunately, these figures have whetted the appetites of malicious individuals, resulting in an increase in cyber attacks’, explains Cédric Tidiane Diarra.

He set up the Génération Numérique foundation, a private initiative aimed at raising public and corporate awareness of the risks of cybercrime and the need to protect against it. ‘We need to be able to guarantee the security of cyberspace, so that we can capitalise on digital transformation and the impact it can have on our economies’, he says.

African SMEs' lack of investment in cyber security

While Africans are following the major cases of ransomware that have hit European and American companies this year, costing them tens of millions of dollars, businesses on the continent still tend to think they are spared.

‘Cyber security may still seem like something out of science fiction’, but it isn't any more, according to Nathalie Kienga, who has just set up the Institute of Cyber Security and Information Systems Security in Kinshasa. In her view, African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), unlike banks and insurance companies, are not investing enough in cyber security.

There is still work to be done - says Olivier Rogez in his article Cybercriminalité et mésinformation en Afrique, le fossé numérique accroit la menace - Cybercrime and misinformation in Africa, the digital divide increases the threat - on the fact that cyber security is an investment. Of course, it has a cost, but it is an investment. And it's better to guard against the risk than to have to pay the price later. That's why the Institute is proposing a strategy based on risk rather than reaction to a threat or incident, so that everyone can protect themselves and defend themselves, when necessary.

Securing insufficiently protected businesses

It is because SMEs and mid-sized businesses are not yet sufficiently protected that the Génération numérique foundation intends to target them as a priority. ‘We are also going to launch a face-to-face awareness-raising campaign aimed at various SME players in Africa, and particularly in Côte d'Ivoire, to armour them against these various attacks’, says Cédric Tidiane Diarra.

Cyber security is also a matter for governments. On 25 and 26 October 2024, Lomé hosted the first African summit on the subject, under the aegis of the United Nations.

See, Cybercriminalité: un millier de personnes arrêtées dans 19 pays d’Afrique lors d’une vaste opération