Cybersecurity in East African Financial Systems: Threats and Mitigation Strategies

Cybersecurity threats in East African financial systems have become increasingly prominent due to the rapid digitization of banking and financial services. A mixed-method approach was employed, including a literature review and semi-structured interviews with cybersecurity experts from the region. Analysis revealed that phishing attacks account for approximately 30% of all reported cyber incidents in Ugandan financial institutions. The study concludes that while current security measures are effective against most threats, there is a need to enhance training programmes and implement more advanced intrusion detection systems. Financial regulators should mandate regular cybersecurity audits and encourage the adoption of multi-factor authentication for all online transactions. East Africa, Cybersecurity, Financial Institutions, Uganda, Mitigation Strategies 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.