AS Zimbabwe’s digital footprint grows through mobile banking, e-government platforms and social media, cyber security experts are warning that weak passwords, weak PINs and poor authentication habits are leaving millions of Zimbabweans dangerously exposed to cybercrime.
Investigations into recent fraud cases show a dangerous trend, many Zimbabweans are using easily guessable personal information as passwords and PINs.
These include first names, surnames, mother’s and father’s names, children’s names, dates of birth, years of birth, wedding anniversaries and even national ID numbers.
Such details are often publicly available on social media, church records, funeral notices and WhatsApp profiles, making the work of cyber-criminals alarmingly easy.
According to cyber security analysts, attackers no longer rely on advanced hacking tools alone. Instead, they exploit human behaviour and predictable password choices.
A criminal does not need sophisticated software when a victim’s password is “Jacob1980”, “MaiTendai”, “Mutisi123” or a simple four-digit birth year.
Once one account is breached, criminals attempt the same credentials across banking apps, email accounts and mobile money platforms, a technique known as credential reuse.
Law-enforcement officials say this is contributing to the sharp rise in cases of unauthorised bank withdrawals, mobile money fraud and identity theft.
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In many incidents, victims insist they never shared their PINs, only for investigations to reveal that the PIN was built from personal information that was easy to guess or already publicly known.
The danger is compounded by systems that still rely on static PINs and single-factor authentication. Experts warn that in an era of phishing, SIM-swap fraud and malware, passwords and PINs alone are no longer sufficient protection.
Criminals are increasingly able to bypass weak authentication mechanisms without ever physically accessing a victim’s phone.
Small businesses are equally at risk. Many small to medium enterprises continue to use default passwords, shared logins or owner names as access credentials for point-of-sale systems and online platforms.
Without enforcing strong passwords and multi-factor authentication, these businesses remain easy targets for cyber extortion and data theft.
Zimbabweans are urged to abandon personal-information-based passwords entirely and adopt safer digital habits.
What Zimbabweans should do
- Never use names, surnames or family names as passwords or PINs;
- Avoid dates of birth, years of birth or anniversaries in any form;
- Use long, complex passphrases that combine unrelated words, numbers and symbols;
- Enable two-factor or multi-factor authentication on banking, email and social media accounts;
- Change passwords regularly and immediately after any suspicious activity; and
- Limit personal information shared publicly, especially on social media.
Zimbabwe is now a digital economy and is moving deeper into the digital age, cyber security is no longer just a technical issue but a personal responsibility.
Weak passwords and predictable PINs are fast becoming the open doors through which cybercriminals enter and unless habits change, the cost to individuals, businesses and the national economy will continue to rise.
- Mutisi is the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Internet Service Providers’ Association.
