Assessing Patterns of Cybercrimes Associated with Online Transactions in Namibia Banking Institutions’ Cyberspace

Advances in technology have provided substantial benefits and innovations to the world in massive ways such as ecommerce, timely business processing, connectivity, easy access to information and fast communication. Such benefits and innovations have been adopted in the banking sector, for example, mobile banking, credit cards, Internet banking as well as agency banking. Although information technology has provided substantial benefits mentioned above it, however, comes with disadvantages such as information security breaches and unsecure Information and Communication Technology environments. As a result, end-users are now connected to the Internet, and this has resulted in several internet users becoming victims of cybercriminals. This study aimed at evaluating patterns of cybercrimes associated with online transactions in the Namibian banking institutions’ cyberspace and proposes mitigation strategies. To do that, the researcher interviewed six Namibian banking institutions to understand cybersecurity issues, trends and existing solutions. The study found that cybercrimes such as phishing, social engineering, vishing, smishing, spear phishing, spoofing and website compromise, distributed denial-of-service (DDos) are rampant. This is worsened by the fact that Namibia does not have a local cybersecurity framework to guide local banks in curbing these crimes.