Liquid Telecom, Serianu Target Sacco Cyber Criminals With New Service

Internet service provider Liquid Telecom has partnered with cyber security consultancy Serianu to bring a new service targeting local savings and credit cooperative societies (saccos) help them mitigate possible losses from internal and external fraudsters.

Known as SIEMaaS, an acronym for Security Information and Event Management As A Service, it provides a technical solution to identify and qualify cyber security risks faced by the sacco. According to Liquid Telecom, SIEMaaS builds technical controls to protect access to sacco members’ personal data and funds. The technical controls are then monitored and any fraudulent access is alerted on and acted upon to prevent loss.

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According to Liquid Telecom Group Chief Technology Officer Ben Roberts, speed and accuracy have become key tenets in the new war against cyber criminals, necessitating a radical shift from the traditional approach to cyber security management for saccos.

“With Kenya’s sacco members estimated at 10 million with a collective deposit base of Ksh150 billion, the need for a structured cyber security management program for these financial services organizations has become even more urgent as fraudsters change tact and adopt more sophisticated, slow and silent data breaches,” said Roberts.

SIEMaaS combines enterprise log monitoring, cyber-threat intelligence and cloud-based threat management and reporting.

Serianu Chief Operations Officer Joseph Mathenge said that the firm was working with Liquid Telecom to provide saccos with an important real time fail-safe that also targets to turnaround detection to arresting culprits within a matter of hours.

“We recognize that in addition to playing the deposit-taking and lending functions, many saccos are expanding their range of member services, necessitating investment in technology infrastructure that can facilitate the transactions and link to other devices such as mobile phones,” said Mathenge.

Mathenge noted that while saccos were fairly slow in embracing the use of technology to run their operations, those offering FOSA services were increasingly becoming targets for external cyber security breaches.

“Most of the fraud cases we have had are internally originated, but the rise in external attacks raises the risk of higher losses,” he said.

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