The worldwide crime ratio, particularly in the crypto market, is pretty alarming. Advanced regulations and security measures can protect the users, especially from hackers. African bitcoin markets are thinking to redesign the security which can prevent attacks from hackers, reportedly.
However, comparatively Exchanges in Africa continent is less harmed, it has faced minimal losses amidst the $930 million this year.
Around this March, a heavy attack on investor funds in the continent of 1.2 billion people occurred in South Africa. A so-called cryptocurrency investment firm escaped with about one billion rands ($80 million) trapping 28,000 South Africans in the false promise of incredibly high, quick returns on their investment, reportedly. It was a scam.
With that African exchanges are aiming to tighten the security. On that note, Suleiman Murunga, the chief executive officer at Ugandan exchange Coinpesa stated that “We have noticed a number of attempts to breach our system, but we have managed to maintain our defenses, and we keep on learning.”
Noting that the company, one of the biggest in the East African country, also uses two-factor authentication, he added, “We (now) use suspicious activity monitoring tools to track user behavior in order to spot bad actors.”
Additionally, there were some more theft and fraud cases happened in Africa, with exchanges like Zimbabwean exchange Golix, Naira4dollar firm, and Blockchain.info wallet.
With the idea of strengthening the security, there is also a belief which says that it’s not exchanges which are always to blame, users also need to be careful and aware.
Although it’s not very easy or simple to bring such safety to digital currency, as crypto is quite largely spread. Also, hackers and scammers are a step ahead of their targeted victims.
Regarding that, a Zimbabwean cryptocurrency enthusiast and former VP at Golix, William Chui suggested that “A ‘walk-in’ model, where users [enter physical premises] to buy [cryptocurrency] and are served while they wait.”
He also said, “This is not scalable nor feasible with the internet and will prove to be too slow. I doubt we can get a foolproof, secure system, but the [aim] will be to minimize losses as much as possible.”
He concluded by recommending, “invest in a technical development department that will continually penetrate the website, and offer bounties for external developers to do the same … Store a larger percentage of clients’ funds in cold wallets.”
All in all, in Africa, regulators will get into action to guard users against losses and frauds, just like it has happened across the world.
