Analysis of the Causative and Motivating Factors of Cyberfraud Perpetration in South Africa

The rate of cyberattack in South Africa continues to increase with corresponding increase in the sophistication of cyberfraud perpetration by the threat actors. This study employed the quantitative approach involving the use of a structured questionnaire as the survey instrument. Using expert sampling, key organizational staff saddled with the responsibility of cyberfraud mitigation were surveyed across the 17 licensed banks in South Africa. The factor analysis was carried out with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, 2022 environment software, to investigate the major causative and motivating factors of the threat actors. The results obtained indicated that the three major probable causative factors of cyberfraud perpetration include installation and use of emerging technologies, weak controls by management, and poor organizational culture. Furthermore, the identified major probable motivating factors were pressure, opportunity, and greed. These factors had their eigenvalues greater than or close to 1. The study thereafter presented a framework for achieving cybersecurity and resilience.