Poor cyber security in Ugandan financial institutions has made them vulnerable to international hackers putting clients’ finances at risk, officials have warned.

“Cyber security is estimated to cost Ugandans over sh15.5b, a figure which has been rising yearly. But financial institutions are not investing as much to deter such incidents, which are rising by the year,” said Nyombi Thembo, the Ag. executive director, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).

This was during the launch of Cyber Stars Competition 2022, which brought together over 250 students from Ugandan universities.

The three-week training and competition aim to provide virtual space for students to learn about cyber security and develop skills in domains such as vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, digital forensics, and computer network defense.

Thembo said worldwide, losses from cyber security attacks are estimated to cost economies around $1 trillion, or 1 percent of GDP per year, calling upon government, telecommunication firms, and financial institutions to invest in appropriate software and cease being key targets for cybercriminals and malicious state actors.

“As Ugandans continue to embrace economic opportunities in cyberspace and become more reliant on the Internet for trade and business, in the eyes of malicious cyber actors, this increasing connectivity and adoption of digital services increase the available attack surface,” he said.

Hosea Naturinda, the regional information security officer for Standard Bank Group Africa, who was the keynote speaker, advised local financial institutions and organizations to assemble diverse teams responsible for governance, IT risk assessment, and infrastructure security within their digital infrastructure.

“Currently, there is a global skills gap of 3.5 million people who are needed to take up cyber security roles in institutions globally. Lack of such is one of the major barriers to tackling cybercrime in Uganda,” he said.

He said although Microsoft Corporation, which is one of the biggest IT firms in the world spends up to $5b a year on system upgrades to deter hackers from penetrating the cyber bunkers, hundreds of breaches still happen, in which organizations lose trillions of dollars annually.

Christine Mugimba, the UCC director for ICT and Research said the Cyber Stars competition, which is aimed at reduction of the human capacity gap in the cyber security field and building the culture of cyber awareness amongst Ugandans, will lead to the selection of 8 individuals who will undergo optimal training in cyber security.

As UCC, we have committed $600 per student to be trained by the Nairobi-based Silent in the delivery of international Telecommunications Union (ITU) recommended cyber drills and computer emergency responses,” she said during the launch, held at UCC offices in Bugolobi, in which universities such as Kabale, Bishop Stuart, Victoria, UTAMU, Isbat, Cavendish, Busitema, Makerere, Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST), among others, took part.

Uganda was recently hit by a mega heist, in which mobile payment service providers and digital payment systems lost billions after hackers hit Pegasus Technologies, a third-party payment technology company.

The attack affected several payment service providers and digital payment systems, among them telecoms, banks, and utility payment systems that use Pegasus Technologies as a transaction aggregator.

The latest figures compiled by Interpol-Uganda show that hackers became more lethal during the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdowns, in which most transactions were digitalized.

 The Interpol Uganda report indicated that $4m (sh14.8b) has been lost to online fraudsters in the last twelve months, in the more than 200 cases of Hitech, international and economic crimes of which bank fraud, issuance of fake visas and online business fraud topped the list.