Fraud in the telecommunications sector is costing the South African economy an estimated R5.3-billion/year – and Sim swap-related attacks are a significant contributor, accounting for 60% of all mobile banking breaches.
This is according the Communication Risk Information Centre’s (Comric’s) 2025 sector report, released on Tuesday.
Comric is an industry body funded by MTN, Vodacom, Telkom, Cell C and Liquid Intelligent Technologies that assesses and works to mitigate against risks threatening the sector’s resilience, including infrastructure crime, cybercrime and natural disasters.
“Our sector is under increasing strain from global shocks, technology transitions and geopolitical uncertainty,” said Thokozani Mvelase, CEO of Comric, at a launch event in Sandton.
“Cybersecurity ranks in the top three global risks by likelihood and impact in the next two years. Our infrastructure is a conduit to many crimes that take place across society: extortion, scams and a whole basket of issues all happen over mobile networks.”
In compiling the report, Comric combed through global crime statistics before focusing on telecoms sector-related crime. Once a global perspective was developed, the organisation analysed local crime statistics, comparing local and international trends. Data from its member telecoms operators was also used to compile the report.
Expansion
“This is before we even consider the downstream impact on other sectors that lost business because there was a disruption in connectivity. If we don’t arrest crime in the country, we will only find that these issues will escalate,” said Mvelase.
Comric chairman Peter Goss said that despite the insights gleaned from the report, the organisation’s ability to get a clear picture of how crime impacts the telecoms sector is limited by virtue of it only having five member operators. Goss said one of Comric’s goals in the next year is to expand its membership. © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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