Scandals such as the recent hacking and posting of Hollywood stars’ nude selfies, and the Twitter debacle involving Pretoria schoolboys, are going to get a lot worse, says cyber forensic expert Danny Myburgh.
Speaking at the International Crimestoppers conference in Cape Town yesterday, Myburgh said South Africa was a target for social media hackers and cyber crime.
“The FBI has ranked South Africa the sixth-most active country for cyber crime. This is because it is a mix of the third and first worlds.
“African and Asian syndicates operate here because of the high level of technology. They can send large quantities of e-mails from here. The syndicates piggyback on our constitution, solid business infrastructure and good moral reputation.”
Children and the elderly were most at risk, he said.
“Placing a smartphone in a child’s hand is like giving him a loaded gun.”
The biggest cyber crime threats to South Africa included spoof websites or phishing, illegal access to data, hacking cellphones and the footprints left by social media users.
“We also see child porn syndicates getting larger and larger.”
Cape Town NGO Matla a Bana’s Monique Strydom said South Africa was far behind the rest of the world when it came to clamping down on online sexual predators.
“We have no clue who is viewing porn. All we see are court cases and by then it’s too late.”
South Africa should have an online paedophile unit, she said.
Several countries had adopted technology that identifies online viewers of child porn.
One of them is NetClean WhiteBox, which blocks access to child porn sites and alerts Interpol when attempts are made to access them.
It is available in 30 countries.
- After nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, Gabrielle Union, Kate Upton and others were posted on the internet last month, lawyers representing some of the celebrities have threatened to sue Google for $100-million (R1.1-billion).