Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
SIM swop fraud rises by 104%
THERE has been a massive increase in cyber-related crimes specifically targeting online and mobile banking apps, warns IRS Forensic Investigations.
Other such crimes include phishing, malware, and SIM swops.
“The SA Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) reported that South Africa lost a quarter of a billion rand through these type of banking app frauds in 2017.
“What is really concerning, however, is that Sabric reported an increase of over 100% in the following year’s study from January to August 2018 in respect of SIM swop fraud in particular,” said IRS director Chad Thomas.
SIM swop incidents doubled from 4 040 from January to August 2017 to 8 254 over the same period the following year.
This is a 104% increase according to Sabric statistics.
National police commissioner General Khehla Sitole said at the release of the 2017-2018 financial year crime stats, cybercrime would be added to crime statistics this year.
He said the police were gathering more expertise and knowledge about cybercrime, and travelled to China and Thailand to learn more about it.
“The cybercrime strategy is at an advanced stage,” said Sitole.
Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo confirmed to the Weekend Argus that the police were developing the cybercrime strategy and it would be integrated into their Organised Threat Analysis strategy. In 2017, Sabric said there were 13 438 incidents across banking apps, online banking, and mobile banking which cost the industry more than R250 million in gross losses.
While incidents from January to August last year showed a 64% increase, this is compared to the same period in 2017.
Mobile banking incidents showed an increase of more than 100%, with gross losses of R23 593 631 and online banking incidents showed an increase of 44% with gross losses of R89 368 722.
Banking app incidents increased by 20%, with gross losses of R70 156 364.
Kalyani Pillay, Sabric chief executive, said criminals were very skilled at
Marchesi, said: “The DA congratulates all matric candidates. Unfortunately, we must also confront a shocking truth: the real matric pass rate is 37.6% if you include the number of 2016 Grade 10s who actually passed matric in 2018.
“These Grade 10s should be celebrating with other matriculants, but more than half didn’t write matric in the expected time frame. This means only 37.6% of these Grade 10s passed matric.
“The others have either become stuck in a struggling education system repeating grades or worse, have dropped out of the system completely,” said Marchesi.
Schools with a 0% pass rate increased to 12. Forty schools in KwaZulu-Natal obtained a 0-20% pass rate, 17 in the Eastern Cape, 23 in Limpopo, two in Mpumalanga, one in the North West and two in the Western Cape.
Marchesi, however, said the celebrations by the Gauteng and Free State MECs were a slap in the face for pupils as they failed to serve them along the way.
DA premier candidate in the Northern Cape Andrew Louw, joined the fray and painted a bleak picture of the province’s matric performance.
Louw said, in 2016, a total of 23 082 pupils were enrolled in Grade 10 in the province. Only 9 909 wrote the exams last year, which means that only 42.9% of the learners enrolled in Grade 10 went on to write their exams.
Other political parties including the EFF and IFP congratulated the class of 2018 and noted improvements in some of the provinces.
The EFF acknowledged the stumbling block yet to be faced by thousands who will be starting their first year at universities.
EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi appealed to universities to create more space for matriculants who will be enrolling.
“The EFF laments the lack of university spaces that continuously haunts our higher education system.
“There are only 210800 new places available at the country’s 26 universities in 2019, meaning, besides those that have been excluded in previous years due to lack of space or funding, an additional 38800 students will not find spaces at universities.”
Meanwhile, the ANC hailed the matric performance, saying the process to transform the education system and the significant investment made by the government were bearing fruit every year.
Acting spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said: “The significant achievements by a number of provinces are a cause to celebrate and must spur us on to achieve better results. The drop in the Northern Cape and Western Cape is a cause for concern which requires immediate attention to arrest the decline and improve the performance of learners this year.”
An academic paper that drew on data collected on education in a national household survey in South Africa paints a bleak picture.
The paper titled “Progress through school and the determinants of school dropout in South Africa”, found that coloured pupils, followed by black pupils, were most likely to drop out of school. White and Indian children were less likely to leave school before matric.
Socio-economic factors, the researchers found, played an important part in drop-out rates.
According to the study, more than 24% of girls claimed they had dropped out because of pregnancy.
The most common reason given by male pupils for leaving is that they could not afford the fees.
Addressing the drop-out problem is complicated.
“It is a major concern that learners are leaving the schooling system. For far too long we have placed emphasis on matric but the problem is at primary and foundation phase. If you want an enduring change in the education system you must start there,” said Professor Sarah Gravett, the executive dean in the Faculty of Education at the University of Johannesburg.
Gravett said there should be a curriculum review, and that it should be slimmed down.
Teachers also needed to be properly supported and equipped to teach at the foundation phase.
The Department of Education had introduced two initiatives, said Roné McFarlane, the co-head of research at Equal Education, that show signs of addressing the drop-out problem.
The first is a progression policy where pupils are pushed up to the next grade, if they have failed more than once in a phase. Progression pupils are also given the option of completing Grade 12 in two years.
“Research has shown that repeating grades increases the chances of dropping out.
“What is encouraging is that we are seeing the number of progression learners passing,” said McFarlane.
The other initiative involves intervention coaching where teachers involved in early literacy programmes are given on-site coaching.
The programme, said McFarlane, had shown positive results. “We are now calling on the department to expand that programme to other provinces,” she said.