E-Money Security Dilemma: Advanced Cybersecurity Mechanisms and Legacy Mobile Payments in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Mobile Network Operators (MNO) infrastructures are expanding in many Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries that are increasingly adopting mobile payment services. The adopted model is outdated and not compliant with today's more secure, dynamic, and application-driven environments. Unstructured Supplementary Services Data (USSD) legacy technology is widely deployed in SSA countries due to several factors including compatibility with handsets, user experience, cost, and ease of deployment for the MNOs. A survey reveals that USSD is used by approximately 65-75% of the population for mobile payments. The MNOs infrastructure was developed for connectivity, rather than security, making the e-money ecosystem prone to cyber-attacks. End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is one of the recommended cybersecurity solution mechanisms. This research shows that tokenization with identity based encryption techniques is a suitable model to secure financial transactions over USSD as it provides an end-to-end encrypted path when combined with Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) while lessening changes to the technology itself and the underlying network. This implementation introduces additional cost for maintenance and management, and therefore, the governments need to adopt market-friendly laws, regulations, and policies to develop employable skills and facilitate MNOs' return on investment.