Kenya’s biggest telecom, Safaricom has announced that it will be venturing into the cybersecurity business.

The telecom is targetting local firms looking to secure their ICT systems. Safaricom will now be offering security services to both businesses and individuals to reduce the chances of money and sensitive data loss.

Safaricom will be securing firms and individuals’ emails, websites, databases, manage vulnerabilities, and conduct an IT audit to their systems. The telecom will also be providing real-time monitoring since many local companies are facing an increasing threat of hacking and fraud from tech-savvy criminals.

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“We realize that customers all have unique needs and different budget levels. Our IT cybersecurity solutions are designed to cater to each customer’s needs so that they can get the best value and strategically select their solutions.

We are excited to see that the solution is gathering interest with some of our customers in the financial services and transport industries already signing up for the services,” said Bob Collymore, the Safaricom CEO.

Kenya facing new insecurity of Cyberwarfare

Cyberwarfare is a fairly new concept in Kenya, given most private and public companies began embracing ICT within the last two decades. There was a study done in 2017 on the Kenyan cyberspace, and it revealed that there were approximately Ksh21.2 billion lost to cyber attack in that year alone.

Reports by IT Solutions firm Serianu reveals criminals withdrew at least Ksh18 million from victim’s bank accounts. The bank accounts were forced to compensate their customers for these amounts stolen.

There were some other daring attacks that targetted institutions like the Kenya Revenue Authority, lenders, and SACCOs in the country. These attacks have made both private and public companies to scramble for cybersecurity defenses and up their IT systems security.