Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities and Mitigation Strategies in East African Financial Systems: A Namibian Perspective

The financial systems in East Africa are increasingly reliant on digital platforms for transactions, leading to heightened cybersecurity risks. A qualitative study was conducted through a literature review, interviews with cybersecurity experts, and an online survey targeting financial service providers across Namibia. Interviews revealed that the most frequent cyber threats identified were phishing attacks (45%) and malware infections (32%). Namibian financial institutions face significant cybersecurity challenges, necessitating a comprehensive review of existing mitigation strategies to protect against emerging threats. The implementation of advanced encryption techniques and the integration of artificial intelligence for anomaly detection are recommended as key measures to bolster security in East African financial systems. Model estimation used $\hat{\theta}=argmin_{\theta}\sum_i\ell(y_i,f_\theta(x_i))+\lambda\lVert\theta\rVert_2^2$, with performance evaluated using out-of-sample error.