Introduction

Tanzania has made significant progress in deploying ICT. It is expected that ICT will
facilitate the country in creating the environed knowledge economy. As stated in national
ICT policy, Tanzania is committed to utilize ICT to enhance nation-wide economic
growth and social progress. Typical examples include the increase of connectivity and
application of electronic services to the nation. Currently, Tanzania has increased
connectivity through the National ICT Broadband Backbone (NICTBB); the network has
been deployed to all districts in the country [5]. It is expected that the network will
enhance usage of ICT applications for sustainable socio-economic development including
implementation of e-government , e-learning, e-health, e-commerce and much more
locally and globally.
The increase of electronic services in Tanzania is another progress that Tanzania has
made in implementing ICT. This can be evidenced by the growth in subscription of
mobile phone and related services. For instance, in March 2013 Tanzania had a mobile
subscription of about 27 million with a registered subscription of about 26 million (Table
1).
Table 1 : Simcard registration trend as on March 2013
Vodaco

Benso

Category
Subscriptio

m
9,467,48

Airtel
8,440,0

Tigo
6,408,7

Zantel
3,060,5

TTCL

Total
27,428,9

4
9,327,42

40
8,156,9

42
6,351,0

81
1,755,0

515,28

528

03
25,642,4

Registered
%Register

06

63

13

51,528

528

59

ed

99

97

100

100

93

99
57
Source TCRA 2013

This situation has led in to the introduction of mobile money transfer services. The most
famous of these are mobile money transfer services offered by telecommunications
operators and mobile banking systems offered by banking institutions. Some examples of

these systems and services include Tigopesa, M-Pesa, Airtel Money, mobile banking,
Simbanking, and NMB Mobile offered by Tigo Tanzania Ltd, Vodacom Tanzania, Airtel
Tanzania, National Bank of Commerce, CRDB Bank, and National Microfinance Bank
respectively. These mobile transactions schemes offer customers convenience to access
their financial resources timely and with much ease while the service providers generate
some extra revenue. It has also contributed to the provision of mobile internet bundles to
subscribers across the country. In this way, Tanzania is continuing to advance towards
becoming an information society. However, this situation explains continuing access to
ICTS, but also extends the cybercrime challenge in the country.

Cyber crimes in Tanzania

Cybercrime is a vivid challenge for Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
industry in Tanzania. This is from the fact that Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) especially mobile phones and associated e-services have become
pervasive across the country. The country has been experiencing massive cyber-attacks
on their websites/ISs since January 2010 up to June 2013. Some of websites being hacked
over this period are National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Tanzania Commission for
Universities (TCU) and National Council for Technical Education (NACTE), Open
University of Tanzania (OUT), Chemi and Cotex Industries Ltd, and Tanzania Olympic
website [2]. Kalunde highlighted that the cybercrimes Tanzania experiencing are computer
fraud, hacking, IP crimes, ATM Fraud, denial of service; victims being the government
agencies, banks, private business, universities and public in general [1].

Tanzania has over 26 Banks and all these banks use the latest technology available in the
market to offer services. Some of these banks even inter-connect their services to Mobile
Communication Networks. Banks have been in the frontline of attacks by both Locals
and Foreigners Technology used against banks are :- Key Loggers, Skimmers, ATM
Cloners, Insiders, Sniffers, Identity Theft, Card Trading Adoption of ATMs for banking
service provides banks with an opportunity to enhance the quality and range of banking
services to their customers[4].

However Combating cybercrimes in Tanzania is debatable due to the absence of robust

legal regime on cybercrime [2]. Most crimes in the United Republic of Tanzania are
regulated by laws such as the Criminal Procedure Act Cap 20 [R.E.2002](Procedural
law),

Penal Code (Cap 16 [R.E.2002]), the Extradition Act (Cap 368 [R.E.2002]).

However, most of these laws are outdated and do not take into account the development
of technology that is always changing very rapidly [3].
In a report of the conference held on Cyber crimes, Mr.Adam Mambi argued that the
legal environment in Tanzania is still inadequate for cyber security in the country because
the existing laws were developed before the development of computer technology. The
laws were made to facilitate the traditional paper based business environment. This
situation poses a serious challenge to Tanzania to accommodate modern cyber crimes
such as fraud, theft of data, laundering, transmission of harmful codes, unauthorized
access to information, impersonation.
Another challenge is lack of e-evidence. In his paper, Adam Mambi argued that the
prosecutors and investigators of crimes might face the lack of evidence challenge when
they handle criminal matters before the court prove that the accused of cyber crime has
case to answer [5]. This due to the fact that the main law that regulates evidence in the
United Republic of Tanzania is the Law of Evidence Act, which was enacted before the
development of digital technology[3]. Moreover there is a tendency of Tanzanians not
reporting crimes due to lack of cybercrimes laws, fear of losing customers and lack of
awareness to citizens.

Conclusion6
The more the technology grows is the more the rate of cyber crimes increases. For a
developing country like Tanzania Combating cyber crimes is still a challenge. Existence
of cyber crimes is a reality but due to the un-reporting culture and absence of law
combating them it appears like a Myth. Thus there is a need to create awareness citizens,

organizations, the Government and public on existence of the cyber crimes; and how to
report cybercrime also reforming the law so as to protec this generation of fast growing
technology.

REFERENCES
[1] S. M. Kalunde. The status of Cybercrime in Tanzania :Strasbourg, France. Technical
report.Council of Europe
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/cooperation/economiccrime/cybercrime/Documents/ReportsPresentations/Octopus2011/Update_session_Tanzania.pdf
[2] E. N. Nfuka, C. Sanga, M. Mshangi. The Rapid Growth of Cybercrimes Affecting
Information Systems in the Global: Is this a Myth orReality in Tanzania?. International
Journal of information Security Science.Vol. 3, No. 2
http://www.ijiss.org/ijiss/index.php/ijiss/article/view/72/pdf_16
[3]UNCTAD (2013).Harmonizing cyber law and regulation: The experience of East
African Community
http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/dtlstict2012d4_en.pdf
[4] Yonazi, J. (2012). Cyber Security in Tanzania:Report on from the Cyber-Security
Mini-Conference. Dar-es-Salaam: Center for ICT Research andCenter for ICT Research
and Innovations (CiRI).
https://www.academia.edu/1925835/Cyber_Security_in_Tanzania._Proceedings_of_the_
Cyber_Security_Mini-Confrece
[5]A.Mambi. A decade after the establishment of the Commercial Court Division: The
role of the Court on the Legal changes towards the use of ICT (electronic evidence) in the
administration of Justice in Tanzania.
http://www.comcourt.go.tz/comcourt/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Mambi-Adam-Therole-of-the-Court-on-the-Legal-changes-towards-the-use-of-ICT-electronic-evidence-inthe-administration-of-Justice-in-Tanzania.-Commercial-Court-Roundtable-8th-Oct.2009.pdf