Bank of Zambia – BoZ Deputy Governor says the country should seriously consider setting up a Computer Incident Response Teams (CIRTs) for various industries including the financial sector in order to curb cyber security crimes.
BOZ has since called upon the Bankers Association of Zambia to work with the central bank to ensure that this is achieved. The financial services sector is a key target by cybercrime criminals because it is the custodian of large amount of funds in the economy.
Deputy Governor – Administration, Dr. Tukiya Mabula-Kankasa was speaking during the Cyber security workshop. “I believe that the CIRT would not only assist in ensuring that all financial institutions are collaborating and working as one in mitigating cyber risks but also enable information sharing. The financial services sector has to see cyber security for what it is, a large scale operational risk deserving the utmost attention and thus develop the necessary systems and cultures throughout the sector to deal with this risk,” she said
Key to the development and operation of these systems and cultures is the need to nurture talent capable of addressing cyber security threats through prompt detection, investigation, reporting, prosecution and prevention.
She further stated that technology (ICT) has over the years permeated all aspects of our lives and in particular has become the mainstay of the world’s financial sector infrastructure. “While these ever emerging technologies such as Digital transformation, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Enterprise Mobility and Mobile Banking, have brought about efficiency and increased innovations, they have also exposed the financial services sector to cybercrime”.
”For this same reason, the financial services sector has to also deal with other types of risks, which among others include, fraud, extortion, money laundering, illicit financial flows, market manipulation, data theft, and currency attacks,” she said.
