Understanding the cost of economic cybercrime in South Africa: An ambidextrous approach

Background: Economic cybercrime (EC) has been a real and growing problem in South Africa (SA), which cannot be ignored. Although EC has cost South African-based organisations billions of rands, it was addressed in silos. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) organisations’ approach to cyber-related crimes was proactive, while the South African Police Services’ (SAPS) approach was reactive. This article infers that stakeholder cooperation was necessary for addressing the scourge of EC in SA. Objectives: This study’s objective was to understand the cost of EC on organisations in SA and to determine how ICT organisations in SA could support SAPS in policing EC. Method: An archival strategy was used to collect archives of news reports and YouTube videos available in the public domain from 2016 to 2023. Results: The cost of EC on SA-based organisations was both explicit and implicit. The explicit cost of EC was in (1) financial loss, (2) data loss and (3) downtime. The implicit cost, on the other hand, includes possible remediation cost and reputational damage. Moreover, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, through their respective interventions, demonstrate that an organisation can extend itself and thereby avail its resources for cybercrime policing collaboration purposes. Conclusion: This article made it apparent that EC was costly on the SA economy; therefore, tackling this problem collaboratively with the involvement of Internet Service Provider Association would be useful for making an indelible mark on this phenomenon. Contribution: This article adds to theory in the cybercrime and/or cybersecurity field because they are emerging disciplines by provisioning insight into how ICT organisations could simultaneously explore and exploit their resources while aiding SAPS to address EC in SA.