Cyber-criminality: Multifaceted Modus Operandi

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Cyber-criminality: Multifaceted Modus Operandi

16 mars 2022 12:17

The phenomenon is gaining more grounds in the country with economic consequences doubling in less than two years according to a recent report by the National Agency of Information and Communication Technologies, ANTIC.

T he Law No. 2010/012 of 21 December 2010 Relating to Cybersecurity and Cyber- criminality in Cameroon, defines cyber-criminality as “infraction of the law carried out through cyberspace using means other than those habitually used to commit conventional crimes.” It adds in its Section 33 that cybersecurity is the “technical, organizational, legal, financial, human procedural measures for prevention, deterrence and other actions carried out to attain set security through electronic communication networks and information systems and protect private security.” The legal instrument further gives clarification on the term cyber-criminality in Section 51 with a more apt definition for our context by stating that intentional intrusion or unauthorized access to an electronic communications network or an information system with intent of causing harm or deriving economic, financial, industrial, or security benefit or sovereignty.

With the advancement registered in the digital technology with almost all human endeavours being digitalized, millions of transactions, useful financial data, and information are stored electronic communication networks and information systems. As technology advances, so too a the negative aspects of it are being developed rapidly by hoodlums, whose intentional acts to derive financial gains constitute cyber-criminality. The recent report of the National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies (ANTIC), indicates that Cameroon lost a colossal sum of FCFA 12.2 billion to the phenomenon in 2021. The ANTIC report shows the amplitude of the phenomenon with financial losses doubling from FCFA 6 billion reported in 2019 to FCFA 12 billion in 2021.

Various forms of cybercrimes exist today as the phenomenon has become an everyday parlance in the country. A 2021 study titled “Understanding Cybercrimes as Practiced in Cameroon, authored by René Ntoko Ntonga of the University of Yaounde II identifies 10 different forms of cybercrimes. Amongst them are online scamming, phishing attacks, hacking and cyberstalking and identity theft amongst others. A detailed review of the 2021 figures shows financial losses amounting to FCFA 2.5...