At Safaricom, data security is not guaranteed!

The rise of cybersecurity threats, the evolving regulatory environment, the increasing need to audit internal corporate culture, and today’s “War for Talent” are just some of the key challenges that both investors and the C-suite face today.

For instance, Safaricom was hit today with a hacker who ended up rewarding subscribers with millions of shillings worth of free airtime and data!

While one would expect a company as sophisticated as Safaricom to have had the best cybersecurity measures in place, it has been hit twice in a span of 4 months.

WEAK CYBERSECURITY PROTOCOLS…

The distinctiveness about this hack was the fact that it came just hours after the technical team at the Telco had concluded and rolled out a new product on a data plan without expiry dates!

The same hitch happened in June just after the company had upgraded its platinum plan product!

Is this deliberate sabotage by employees, a technical hitch or plain inferiority in data security protocols at Safaricom?

This is notwithstanding the numerous Mpesa fraudsters on the loose.

CONSUMER RIGHTS…

It is not rocket science then that this comes on the heels of an ongoing court case where the Telco is being sued for unfairly depriving consumers the right to enjoy their products by imposing the data expiration on their data service.

IT’S OVERWHELMING…

In recent times, Safaricom has too much going on that such slip-ups could be an indication of an overwhelmed system. Visualize this;

1.   Parliament is in the process of passing a bill seeking to separate the telecommunication business from the financial arm Mpesa. Note that Mpesa contributes to the bigger share of profits and commands cash transfers while outcompeting mainstream banks at it.

2.   A city lawyer has sued Safaricom over data expiration – says its depriving and discriminatory on consumers

3.   Safaricom is seeking to acquire a major stake in Ethiopia’s state owned Ethio Telcom Ltd which will expand its revenue base.

4.   The flop that is Safaricom Home Fibre with customer complaints running into thousands ranging from delayed installations and activations, network downtimes, interruptions by various maintenance work etc

5.   There is a stand-off between Safaricom and Telkom over the latter’s planned merger with Airtel for owing due to interconnection, co-location and fibre services.

6.   Rumour has it that the Telco has not finalized refunds following its IPO 11yrs back

DATA PRIVACY…

While one may write on end and the list might grow further, it is fair to note that the giant Telco has exposed its underbelly! Time for the Communications Authority to intervene. Safaricom holds thousands of private data. How safe is your data shared with such a company?

Safaricom is overwhelmed