By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
4 February 2025- The South African Police Service (SAPS) said cybercrime is a fast-growing area of crime. The police said more and more criminals are exploiting the speed, convenience and anonymity of the internet to commit a diverse range of criminal activities that know no borders, either physical or virtual.
The Upington SAPS Detectives Branch- Economic Crimes, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Faro, who deals with fraud cases on a daily basis, urged the public to be alert and call on parents to monitor the online presence of children to avoid incidents.
“These crimes can be divided into three broad areas such as attacks against computer hardware and software. For example, botnets, malware and network intrusion. Financial crimes and corruption such as online fraud, penetration of online financial services and phishing.
“Abuse in the form of grooming or ‘sexploitation’, especially crimes against children. Kindly apply prevention tips by using strong passwords – use different user ID/password combinations for different accounts and avoid writing them down,” he said.
Faro further said the users should make the passwords more complicated by combining letters, numbers, special characters (a minimum of 10 characters in total) and change them regularly. He added that they should also secure their computer by activating their firewall.
“Firewalls are the first line of cyber defence. They block connections to unknown or bogus sites and will keep out a number of types of viruses and hackers. Use antivirus/malware software and prevent viruses from infecting your computer by installing and regularly updating antivirus software.
“Prevent spyware from infiltrating your computer by installing and updating anti-spyware software. Be social media savvy – Make sure your social networking profiles, for example, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MSN, among other social networks, are set to private,” said Faro.
He said individuals should check their security settings. Faro said they should be careful of what information they post online.
“Once it is on the internet, it is there forever. Secure your mobile devices and be aware that your mobile device is vulnerable to viruses and hackers. Download applications from trusted sources.
“Install the latest operating system updates and keep your applications and operating system, for example Windows, Mac, and Linux, up to date with the latest system updates. Turn on automatic updates to prevent potential attacks on older software, he said.
The Guardian 