{"id":576142,"date":"2022-04-11T12:19:54","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T10:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=576142"},"modified":"2022-04-11T12:19:54","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T10:19:54","slug":"south-africa-looking-at-new-phone-rules-as-other-african-countries-block-millions-of-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/576142\/south-africa-looking-at-new-phone-rules-as-other-african-countries-block-millions-of-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa looking at new phone rules as other African countries block millions of numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nigeria barred millions of mobile phone numbers this week as part of the Nigerian government&#8217;s policy to boost security amid an Islamist insurgency and a spate of kidnappings.<\/p>\n<p>The country&#8217;s telecoms regulator had in December 2020 ordered mobile phone providers to add identification numbers (NINs) &#8211; containing personal data identifying the user &#8211; to every SIM card registered in the country or block the SIMs, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/africa\/nigeria-bars-calls-unregistered-phones-attempt-boost-security-2022-04-05\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reuters<\/a> <\/strong>reports.<\/p>\n<p>The NIN has subsequently become a precondition for accessing telecoms services as well as banking, immigration and other government services. Some 125 million SIM cards have reportedly been linked, with the remaining numbers set to &#8216;receive only&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria is not the first country to clamp down on SIM-card fraud and other African countries have also taken steps to block unregistered numbers to stem fraud and criminal activity, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2022\/4\/8\/why-are-african-governments-are-blocking-phone-lines-of-citizens\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Al Jazeera<\/a><\/strong> reports.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In March, Zambia announced it had deactivated two million SIM cards to stem the volume of fraud carried out using mobile lines.<\/li>\n<li>Kenya has set a 15 April deadline for the deactivation of unregistered SIM cards.<\/li>\n<li>In 2021, Tanzania said it had blocked 18,000 SIM cards involved in criminal activities, in a bid to also curtail mobile scams.<\/li>\n<li>Ghana issued a directive for every SIM card carrier to re-register their SIMs with the Ghana Card, the national residency card, or lose them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>South Africa to look at possible biometric linking\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has proposed tying the biometric data of South Africans to their SIM cards in a move to clamp down on fraudulent activity.<\/p>\n<p>The proposals are included alongside other draft regulations which were published for public comment by the regulator in a proposal document at the end of March.<\/p>\n<p>The regulations define biometric data as the \u201cmeasurement and statistical analysis of people\u2019s unique physical and behavioural characteristics\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In practice, this means that fingerprint mapping, facial recognition, retinal scans and biometric data could all be tied to a person\u2019s SIM card \u2013 and by extension their phone number \u2013 going forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn activation of a mobile number on its network, a licensee must ensure that it collects and links the biometric data of the subscriber to the number. A licensee must ensure that, at all times, it has the current biometric data of an assigned mobile number,\u201d the regulator said.<\/p>\n<p>If a subscriber requests a SIM swap, the mobile network must ensure that the biometric data of the user requesting the SIM swap corresponds with the biometric data associated with the mobile number.<\/p>\n<p>If the biometric data does not correspond with the biometric data associated with the mobile number, the SIM swap must be declined.<\/p>\n<p>Icasa explained it was introducing these tougher security measures due to ongoing concerns wherein mobile numbers have been hijacked either through a porting and\/or SIM swap transaction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe hijacking of mobile numbers is a small but integral part of a wider form of fraud where sensitive data is diverted or comes in the control of criminal elements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe authority is of the view that the association of mobile numbers with the biometric data of a subscriber will assist to curb the hijacking of assigned subscriber mobile numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/575944\/musk-turns-down-twitters-offer-to-join-its-board\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Musk turns down Twitter\u2019s offer to join its board<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nigeria barred millions of mobile phone numbers this week as part of the Nigerian government&#8217;s policy to boost security amid an Islamist insurgency and a spate of kidnappings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":390955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-576142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576142"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":576208,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576142\/revisions\/576208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}