themselves Anonymous Africa hacked the Zimbabwe’s defence and Essay

themselves Anonymous Africa hacked the

Zimbabwe’s defence, and targeted South Africa’s

ruling party African National Congress (ANC)

websites (Sultan, 2016; Shaban, 2016). Countries

such as Zambia and South Africa suffer from

cybercrimes to the tune of 0.14% and 0.16% of

their GDPs respectively (McAfee Intel Security,

2014). Continentally, there is the African Union

Convention on Cybersecurity and the Personal

Data Protection 2014 that seeks to harmonize

African cyber legislations on electronic commerce,

organization and, personal data protection, cyber

security promotion and cybercrime control

(Nyirenda-Jere & Biru, 2015) The SADC region

has model laws on:

• Data Protection, 2012;

• Cybercrime, 2012; and

• Electronic Transactions, 2012 (Chetty,

2013).

The problem in Zimbabwe is that there is no cyber

security framework in place (Ministry of

Information and Communication Technology,

2015). Zimbabwe launched the IT Governance

and Cyber Security Institute of Sub-Sahara in early

2012. Its mandate is to increase information

exchange, promote research and reporting of cyber

threats, and hold periodic ICT security

symposiums (UNIDIR, 2013).

In October 2017, a new Ministry of Cyber Security,

Threat Detection and Mitigation was created,

which is meant protect the nation from cyber

threats posed by the abuse of social media (The

Herald.co.zw, 2017) .

To address cyber security concerns, Zimbabwe is

currently in the process of crafting new legislation,

covering e-commerce, cybercrime and data

protection which are still in draft form. The draft

Computer Crime and Cybercrime Bill has attracted

the most attention because it spills into how

citizens use technology everyday through services

like social media and sharing Wi-Fi connections.

(Gambanga, 2016). Some of the potential offences

in the draft Computer Crime and Cybercrime bill

are: Illegally accessing a device, Interfering with

data, Sharing access codes, Altering or destroying a

password or PIN code, Data Espionage,

Computer-related forgery, Computer related

terrorism activities, Pornography, Identity theft,

Racist/Xenophobic/tribalist insults, Spam, and

Online Harassment (Gambanga, 2016).

Zimbabwe Internet Usage trends and Cyber

Security threats incidences

Zimbabwe has witnessed significant growth of the

internet, with statistics showing a penetration rate

of 50% in 2016, according to the Postal &

Telecomunications Regulatory Authority of

4

Zimbabwe (POTRAZ, 2017). As at 30 June 2017,

the total number of internet subscriptions was

6,668,155 (POTRAZ, 2017). According to

POTRAZ (2016) Report, Zimbabwe had

12,878,926 mobile phone subscribers. Facebook is

the most popular platform in Zimbabwe; Twitter

is also slowly gaining momentum (MISA-

Zimbabwe, 2015). This has seen mobile Internet

data usage up by 19%, whilst national mobile voice

traffic declined by 15% (POTRAZ, 2017). This

means internet use is growing fast in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe has suffered a number of cyber security

breaches on various institutions but mostly in

government departments. According to the

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ 2015),

cybercrime is listed as one of the crimes

contributing to the US$1, 8 billion estimated illicit

proceeds generated from criminal activity annually

in Zimbabwe. Between 2011 and 2015, about 140

cases of cybercrimes were reported and these

include; Phishing (20); Credit Card Fraud (13);

Identity Theft (10); Unauthorized Access (24);

Hacking (72); and Telecommunications Piracy (1).

These statistics are evidence of Zimbabwe’s

vulnerability to computer and cybercrimes and

thus the pressing need for a legal framework to

combat these crimes before they become pervasive

(MISA-Zimbabwe & Digital Society Zimbabwe,

2016). Further, approximately 37 government

related sites were hacked between 2013 and 2016.

Impact on Government related sites and Other

Institutions