STOP ZANGENA POSTINGS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – CIVIL SERVANTS ADVISED

STOP ZANGENA POSTINGS ON SOCIAL MEDIA – CIVIL SERVANTS ADVISED

THE Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority (ZICTA) has advised civil servants to desist from posting salary updates on social media as this exposes them to scammers.

ZICTA Cyber Security Specialist Emmah Kapambwe says her Authority has noted with concern the increase in the number of complaints involving teachers, nurses and some police officers especially towards month-end.

ZANIS reports that the ZICTA Cyber Security Specialist said this in Solwezi when she made a presentation during a stakeholder’s sensitisation meeting on Cyber Security attended by cross section of society.

Ms. Kapambwe said social media postings have exposed public service workers and making them vulnerable to scammers in the recent past.

“Of late we have seen a number of complaints coming through involving teachers, nurses and even police men and women, they are being targeted by scammers because of the Zangena postings on social media,” she said.

She advised people to avoid posting too much personal information on social media as this attracts scammers and expose them to harm.

Ms Kapambwe also advised people especially those aged between 35 and 65 years to guard against online gender-based violence, a trend that is seemingly becoming common.

Meanwhile, ZICTA Copperbelt Regional Officer Christabel Simbulo said digital financial crime is not easy to investigate as most of the people involved are not locally based hence the delay in capturing the perpetrators.

Ms Simbulo disclosed that the authority is however constantly upgrading the system to deal with new trends citing the tightening of the sim card registration system to include a facial image of the sim card owner.

“From the time we introduced this requirement, we have seen a huge reduction in complaints of people being scammed. So far, over 2 million fake sim cards have been deactivated,” she said.

She stated that ZICTA has introduced an option to report a missing or lost phone on the *707# short code and encouraged people to make use of that option so that the authority can lock the device and protect the account as well as contacts on it.