14 CYBER CRIME & CYBER SECURITY TRENDS IN AFRICA Safeguarding Against Social Engineering Conclusions Cyber crime costs the global economy up to US$575 billion annually according to Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, whose report goes on to say that in a potential worst-case 2020 ‘Cybergeddon’ scenario, cyber crime could extract up to a fifth of the value created by the Internet. It is everyone’s responsibility to do all they can to prevent that from happening. For consumers, it’s time kick bad habits. Many people know the basics of good cyber security, yet people continue to share their passwords. In fact more than a third of people who share passwords in the United States have shared the password to their online banking account. People need to start taking more responsibility for shoring up their online security. For example, in South Africa alone, 20% of social network users share their passwords with others, while 21% connect with people they do not know.19 With a young population that is rapidly adopting new technologies, Africa is on the verge of an internet boom. To keep pace, Africa needs to urgently address efforts to combat cyber crime and improve its cyber security posture. The current cyber threat landscape in Africa shows that users are being impacted both by threats that are trending globally as well as some that more specific to the region. It will take a concerted effort from international governments, industry, and civil society to fight cyber crime and improve cyber security so that Africa can reach its full potential and stay on track to be a major driver of the global economy.  Users should be more wary of who they follow on social media. Bots can appear more and more like a real person, and are sometimes difficult to spot. When choosing who to trust on social media, consider the following advice: skeptical of new followers. If a random person follows you, do not automatically follow them back. Look at their tweets. Are they retweeting content that looks like spam? If they are, they are most likely a bot. TT   Be can lie. Even if these random followers have tens of thousands of followers, those numbers can easily be faked. Do not base your decision to follow them back based on how many people follow them. TT   Numbers for the “verified” badge. Twitter users should always check to see if a well-known brand or famous celebrity has been verified by Twitter before following. The blue verified badge denotes that Twitter has authenticated the true owner of an account. TT   Look 19 https://www.symantec.com/about/news/resources/press_kits/detail. jsp?pkid=norton-report-2013