Assuming that one of the attacks used to defraud Zambian banks was a DDoS attack, describe in depth with the aid of a diagram what a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is. Give the steps that could be followed by the banks in the event of the DDoS assault on their systems.
According to Microsoft’s estimate, in 2014 about one half if all adults connected to the internet were victims of cybercrime. This costs the world economy 500 billion dollars; 20% of all small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) have been hit. These estimations are confirmed by Merrill Lynch Global Research, who, in a 2015 report, also predict a potential “Cybergeddon” in 2020, when cybercrime could extract up to one-fifth of the value generated by the Internet.
As far as the African continent is concerned, there are fewer available data this shows the absence of measuring tools and of control of cybercrime.
However, and to serve as an illustration: a study conducted by International Data Group Connect showed that each year, cybercrime cost the South African economy an estimated 573 million dollars. For the Nigerian economy the cost was estimated to be 500 million dollars, and for the Kenyan economy, 36 million dollars.
Proportionally speaking, for middle income countries this represents enormous sums. Another study conducted by Deloitte and dating back to 2011 showed that financial institutions in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia had sustained losses of 245 million dollars, attributable to cyberfraud.
Lastly, several Zambian commercial banks were defrauded of over 4 million dollars in the first semester of 2013, as a result of a complex cybercrime scheme involving Zambians as well as foreign nationals.
In francophone Africa, the phenomenon is mostly to be found in the main regional economies. For instance, in 2013 the estimated cost of cybercrime in the Ivory Coast was 26 billion CFA Francs (3.8 million euros). In Senegal the cost was estimated to be 15 billion CFA francs (22 million euros). At an international forum on cybercrime in 2016 in Dakar, Charles Kouamé, in charge of governance in the Ivorian Authority for the regulation of telecommunications, pointed out that 1.409 complaints had been lodged and acted on by the Ivorian courts last year. According to him, the global volume of Web based fraud in the country seems to have started to decrease, falling from 5.8 billion CFA francs (8.9 million euros) in 2014 to 4 billion CFA francs (6,1 billion euros) in 2015.
These figures show the size of the problem in a part of the world which is currently experiencing exponential growth, fed by the rise in the prices of raw materials and the boom in the technological sector, to which one could add the rise in the incomes of the middle classes. Even if they can’t buy the usual computer “kit” (PCs, printers, routers etc) they can now connect to the Internet with smart phones, the prices of these devices having dropped significantly in the last ten years.
This explains why, in 2013, in Sub-Saharan Africa alone 311 million mobile phone users were counted (a penetration rate of 36 %). The figure should reach 504 million in 2020 (49% penetration rate). For its part, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) estimates that one African out of every five now uses the Internet.
As the newly appointed Security Analyst for a cyber security organisation that seeks to help African countries mitigate the recent cyber-attacks mentioned in the scenario:
-
Assuming that one of the attacks used to defraud Zambian banks was a DDoS attack, describe in depth with the aid of a diagram what a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is. Give the steps that could be followed by the banks in the event of the DDoS assault on their systems.
Step by step
Solved in 2 steps
