It doesn’t matter how secure South Africa builds its IT systems, human beings are the key issue that need to be addressed when dealing with cybercrime in the country, says an expert.

Jason Jordaan, head of the cyber forensic laboratory for the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in South Africa, has said the majority of cybercrime incidents in the country are inside jobs and done through bribes.

Jordaan was speaking at the ITWeb Security Summit in Johannesburg this week.

“Humans are scammable,” he said to delegates.

“Corruption is the main cause of cybercrime in South African - all information is provided to hackers from the inside,” he added.

According to Jordaan, even though South Africa does have good technology systems and standards in place, human error is a key challenged.

He explained that there are South Africans who are quick to give out their usernames and passwords to anyone who claims to be an official from a ‘trusted’ security company.

Jordaan further added that even if there are South African individuals who are reluctant to hand out information like usernames and passwords, they can often be bribed or paid to reveal that information.

“A simple truth we have found in investigations is that everybody has a price but not every price is corruption,” Jordaan stated.