South African Telecom Industry Struggles: Nearly 80% of Companies Experienced Ransomware Attacks over the Last Year
The Communications Risk Information Centre (COMRiC) has released its 2025 Telecommunications Sector Report, revealing that South Africa's telecoms sector loses approximately R5.3 billion annually due to various forms of telecom crime. SIM swap fraud, accounting for nearly 60% of mobile banking breaches, is a significant concern.
The report paints a grim picture of the escalating threat landscape in South Africa, with increasingly complex, layered threats such as SIM swap fraud, subscription fraud, SIM box fraud (which accounts for 40% of sector crimes), identity fraud, ransomware attacks, and sabotage of physical infrastructure like copper cable and lithium battery theft. Cyberattacks globally increased by 126%, and telecom-linked fraud in South Africa rose by 78% from 2022 to 2023. Infrastructure sabotage causes billions in economic damage, affecting network uptime, emergency services, and national connectivity.
Telecom crime is interconnected with broader societal issues such as banking fraud, energy sector risks, and national security. There is a discrepancy between mobile operators’ detection of fraudulent SIM swap requests (3% detected) and banking sector reports, indicating criminals exploit weaknesses between telecom and banking security measures.
To combat these challenges, COMRiC emphasises the need to shift from reactive measures to building a resilient, collaborative defence framework encompassing both public and private sectors. They have partnered with the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) to improve vetting of SIM swap requests, reducing fraud incidents. This partnership exemplifies the necessity of multi-industry collaboration.
Thokozani Mvelase, CEO of COMRiC, calls for a fundamental shift in mindset, arguing that cybersecurity should be designed into the heart of communications systems. He emphasises that fraudsters are innovating faster than the industry is collaborating, and this must change.
COMRiC's initiative includes a national call to action to establish a shared framework for cyber-resilience within the communications sector. They urge stakeholders across industries and government to create collective strategies to strengthen cybersecurity and infrastructure resilience. Cybersecurity spending in South Africa is projected to more than double by 2030, reflecting the growing recognition of the importance of this issue.
The report also highlights SIM box fraud, where international calls are illegally rerouted through local SIM cards, as a significant issue, leading to substantial financial losses for operators and degraded network quality for consumers. Many companies in South Africa still lack the real-time detection and response capabilities needed for sophisticated attacks.
COMRiC stresses that this task demands strong leadership from boardrooms, government, and industry bodies responsible for shaping policy and practice. Protecting the systems that protect us starts with responsibility, urgency, and everyone stepping up, Mvelase concludes. Trust becomes a strategic priority for Mvelase in ensuring the success of this endeavour, emphasising that it should not be a response to the next breach but a current priority.
In summary, the 2025 COMRiC report highlights the urgency of coordinated, cross-sector action against escalating telecom crime and cyber threats in South Africa, grounded in collaboration, improved vetting, and building a proactive resilience framework.
- The Communications Risk Information Centre (COMRiC) has highlighted the rising concern of SIM swap fraud in South Africa, which accounts for nearly 60% of mobile banking breaches.
- Cyberattacks globally increased by 126%, and telecom-linked fraud in South Africa rose by 78% from 2022 to 2023, according to the 2025 COMRiC Telecommunications Sector Report.
- To combat these growing threats, COMRiC has called for a shift from reactive measures to building a resilient, collaborative defence framework involving both public and private sectors.
- Infrastructure sabotage, such as copper cable and lithium battery theft, causes billions in economic damage and affects network uptime, emergency services, and national connectivity.
- The report underlines SIM box fraud, where international calls are illegally rerouted through local SIM cards, as a significant issue leading to financial losses for operators and degraded network quality for consumers.
- Telecom crime in South Africa is interconnected with broader societal issues like banking fraud, energy sector risks, and national security, as indicated by the discrepancy between mobile operators’ detection of fraudulent SIM swap requests and banking sector reports.
- In the finance industry, particularly fintech, data-and-cloud-computing, strong cybersecurity measures are crucial to protect sensitive financial information and prevent fraud.
- COMRiC stresses that this task demands strong leadership from boardrooms, government, and industry bodies responsible for shaping policy and practice, with trust becoming a strategic priority to ensure success in this endeavour.
