Hawks warn of new wave of identity theft, corporate fraud

This is the warning from Hawks investigators, who are urging individuals and companies to stay vigilant.

Brigadier Rapula Mosito, who is the specialised unit's Section Head of Cybercrime Investigation, spoke at a government-hosted webinar on cybersecurity awareness on Thursday to mark Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

The theme 'Secure Our World' focuses on responsible online behaviour.

Mosito warned that syndicates are impersonating CEOs using fake videos to trick employees into releasing funds.

“Artificial intelligence is used by the criminals to automate the attacks and, thereby, creating more convincing stories, and fake videos and as well as voices. 

They even go further in terms of phishing emails that are now being more difficult to detect.”

Mosito has added that a national cybersecurity strategy has been developed, but the draft has not taken effect yet.

Senior Director for Technical Support at Mimecast, Heino Gevers, recently said that South Africa’s complex financial system makes it a prime target for hackers. 

Gevers said South Africans are prime targets for cybersecurity attacks like ransomware, malware, insider threats, and phishing. 

“What is more interesting is the South African information regulator, which consumers and, of course, industries or institutions have an obligation to report any form of data breach. They receive an average of 150 data breach notifications a month. Which obviously exemplifies the fact that South Africa's actually quite a prime target for cyberattacks.”

He said when these attacks target companies or public institutions, they also compromise people’s private information. 

In 2023, the country suffered about 56 data breaches a month. 

In a high-profile incident, the National Health Laboratory Service recently suffered a massive security breach in the latest high-profile case.  

Gevers said there is no magic link to determine whether you are completely safe, but he did recommend going to www.haveibeenpwned.com to find out whether your data could have been part of a data breach.

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