You have likely seen the headlines about possible artificial intelligence (AI) banking scams. Maybe you dread that someone, somewhere, is using AI to try to empty your bank account.
These days, a suspicious text or an unexpected phone call can heighten fears of being targeted by faceless fraudsters and impostors.
South Africa is in the grip of digital crime, and it’s evolving faster than our ability to prevent it.
The latest South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) report reveals that digital banking fraud cases doubled in just one year, with losses rocketing to a staggering R1.4bn. This isn’t petty theft; it’s industrial-scale crime powered by AI.
Criminals now use AI-generated voices to impersonate loved ones in distress, deploy machine learning to bypass security protocols and craft phishing scams that adapt in real-time to their victims’ online behaviour.
In response to this escalating crisis, there’s a predictable cry from the DA: appoint a Cyber Commissioner.
Create a new office, a new title, a new face to point to when the public demands action. It sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?
A coordinated national effort to fight digital fire with fire.
But let’s be blunt: this is a fantasy. The idea that another government appointee, nestled in a Sandton office, will outsmart global syndicates using cutting-edge AI is not just misguided. Such a notion is a dangerous distraction from the real, unspoken crisis at the heart of our national security.
The truth is, we don’t have people skilled enough to tackle digital fraud driven by AI.
We are trying to fight a modern-day digital war with obsolete tools and an inadequately skilled workforce.
South Africa is haemorrhaging the very skills needed to build a digital line of defence
South Africa is haemorrhaging the very skills needed to build a digital line of defence. Our universities produce fewer than 2,000 graduates a year in data science, AI and computer engineering.
The trend is that the best and brightest are instantly scooped up by private banks or lured overseas. There are hardly any experts left to boost our police, spies and regulators.
It is not surprising that our regulators, such as the Financial Sector Conduct Authority and the Reserve Bank, are staffed mostly by lawyers and economists, rather than AI specialists.
They are tasked with auditing algorithms they cannot sufficiently comprehend.
The SAPS cybercrime unit is brave but outgunned, its officers trained in basic forensics while facing threats powered by adaptive machine learning.
Even our State Security Agency, tasked with anticipating national threats, is struggling with the basics, let alone the complex web of AI-driven crime.
Contrast this with how the world’s best cyber defenders operate. The FBI’s Cyber Division in the US isn’t just a fancy nameplate. It’s a thousand-strong army of technologists, data scientists and federal agents recruited from top universities. The FBI works with Silicon Valley, shares intelligence globally and invests in talent above all else.
Similarly, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre and Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency were built on a foundation of relentless technical upskilling.
So we must ask ourselves: who will staff this new Cyber Commissioner’s office suggested by the DA? In a country burdened by cadre deployment that has too often trumped skill, will such an office employ the best digital minds?
The track record suggests it is more likely that politically connected appointees will get the nod.
Without a deep bench of experts, the office would be little more than a collection agency for crime statistics. Simply put, it would likely be a place where reports of your stolen life savings go to swell fraud records.
Banks cannot be let off the hook. They are investing heavily in AI defences, biometric verification and collaboration through Sabric. But they are building fortresses in a landscape where the law enforcement army lacks the skills to fight digital fraud.
A national threat requires a national response, built on a foundation of skill.
The solution isn’t another office. It’s scholarships for AI students who commit to public service. It’s specialised cyber units within SAPS staffed with people earning competitive salaries to retain talent.
It’s mandatory tech upskilling for regulators. It’s a fundamental rethink of how we value and cultivate digital skill as a national security resource.
Creating a new bureaucracy is what politicians do when they want to be seen to be doing something, rather than actually solving the problem. It’s the illusion of control.
When the next deepfake call tries to swindle your grandmother, will she be saved by a commissioner’s title or by a skilled, unseen expert who built the system that stopped it?
• Lourie is editor and founder of Tech Financials
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