Jaikumar Sathish, Head of Information and Communication Technology at Absa Bank Mozambique, called on Wednesday for a coordinated response to cybercrime involving banks, regulators, telecommunications operators, suppliers, customers, and the media, stressing that confidence in the financial system depends increasingly on the ability to protect customer data and transactions.
According to Sathish, digital transformation has fundamentally altered the concept of security in banking. “For a long time, when we spoke about trust, we thought of the building, the vault, physical cash, and security. Today, trust has a new dimension — the ability to protect customers’ data, identity, and money,” he said.
Sathish explained that the growing digitalisation of banking services has brought greater convenience to users, enabling them to conduct financial operations via mobile phone without visiting a branch. However, he cautioned that this evolution has also opened new avenues for criminals. “In the past, criminals wanted to rob the vault. Today, money lives in the digital world, and attacks have followed that shift,” he said.
The Absa ICT director argued that cyber-resilience is one of the central pillars for preserving customer confidence in the financial sector. “Without cyber-resilience, trust ceases to exist. But this responsibility does not rest with banks alone. It is a shared responsibility with the regulator, customers, suppliers, and journalists too,” he said, urging the use of plain language to raise public awareness of cybercrime risks.
Sathish also highlighted the economic scale of cybercrime, stating that if it were a country, it would rank as the world’s third-largest economy. He said losses attributable to cybercrime amount to between eight and ten trillion dollars per year, underscoring that it has become a highly organised and profitable industry. “Cybercrime is no longer the image of someone sitting in a dark room wearing a hoodie. It is a far more organised crime,” he said.
During his presentation, Sathish displayed real-time data on cyberattacks, indicating that Mozambique is among the countries targeted by criminal groups. He said the country records between 8,000 and 9,000 cyberattacks per day, accounting for approximately 4.68% of the attacks monitored on the platform used during the demonstration. “We may think this only happens in other countries, but attacks have already begun knocking on our door,” he warned.
Sathish also recalled a 2022 cyberattack that compromised more than 30 electronic portals belonging to Mozambican public institutions, noting that cybercriminals are increasingly seeking strategic information and sensitive data. “Information is far more valuable than anything we will pay for it. Data about the Government or national strategies has enormous value for those who seek to use it against a country or an institution,” he said.
Among the primary threats currently facing the sector, Sathish highlighted SIM swap fraud, phishing, social engineering, artificial intelligence-driven voice and image cloning, and malicious software. He added that Absa works in coordination with the Bank of Mozambique, telecommunications operators, and other entities to strengthen prevention and response mechanisms, maintaining that combating cybercrime requires a coordinated effort from all stakeholders to protect citizens, businesses, and the financial system.
Source: Diário Económico
Original article: https://www.diarioeconomico.co.mz/2026/07/23/economia/desenvolvimento/absa-bank-mocambique-defende-resposta-conjunta-no-combate-ao-cibercrime/
