Cybersecurity Threats Facing Zambian Banks in 2025

Zambia’s financial sector is undergoing rapid digitalisation. Mobile banking adoption has accelerated, interbank payment volumes are growing, and real-time gross settlement systems are increasingly networked. This is good for financial inclusion — and it expands the attack surface dramatically.

Here are the threats Zambian banks and microfinance institutions face in 2025, and what a security programme should address.

Phishing and Business Email Compromise (BEC)

BEC remains the highest-volume threat to Zambian FIs. Attackers compromise or spoof corporate email accounts and redirect payments or extract credentials. In the Zambian context, targets are often accounts payable staff and treasury teams who process interbank transfers.

BOZ guidelines require FIs to implement multi-factor authentication on all financial systems. Many smaller MFIs are still running single-factor authentication on their core banking systems, creating an obvious entry point.

SWIFT Infrastructure Attacks

The 2016 Bangladesh Bank heist — $81 million stolen via SWIFT — triggered global tightening of SWIFT Customer Security Programme (CSP) requirements. Zambian banks connected to the SWIFT network are required to attest to CSP compliance annually, but independent verification is rarely conducted.

A penetration test targeting SWIFT integration points — the SWIFT Alliance Gateway, operator workstations, and messaging interfaces — should be a mandatory annual exercise for any Zambian bank on the SWIFT network.

Insider Threats

Zambia’s banking sector sees relatively high staff turnover, and access deprovisioning is inconsistently enforced. Former employees retaining active credentials to core banking systems represent a persistent risk that technical controls alone cannot address — access reviews and separation of duties controls must be part of every security programme.

Mobile Banking Application Vulnerabilities

As Zambian banks have launched mobile apps rapidly, security testing of those apps has lagged. Common findings in assessments we have conducted include:

• Insecure local storage — sensitive session tokens stored unencrypted on the device
• Insufficient certificate pinning — allowing man-in-the-middle attacks on jailbroken devices
• Missing transaction limits — no server-side enforcement of per-transaction caps

BOZ Compliance Requirements

The Bank of Zambia’s cybersecurity directive requires licensed FIs to conduct annual penetration testing and submit results to BOZ. A gap assessment against the BOZ Cybersecurity Framework is a prerequisite before a full pentest — it identifies which controls are missing and ensures the pentest scope covers the right systems.

What a Security Programme Should Include

A baseline security programme for a Zambian bank or MFI should cover:

1. Annual penetration test of external perimeter, internal network, mobile apps, and SWIFT/payment integration points
2. ISO 27001 gap assessment to identify control deficiencies
3. Phishing simulation and staff training — technical controls only stop known attack patterns; staff are the last line of defence
4. Quarterly access reviews — ensuring departed staff and contractors are deprovisioned promptly
5. BOZ compliance attestation — documentation for annual BOZ submission

Filika Technology conducts cybersecurity assessments for Zambian banks grounded in IEEE-published methodology. If you need to understand your current exposure, contact our security team.