The Rise and Fall of Seth Mwabe

History Sync

Watch The Rise and Fall of Seth Mwabe - History Sync on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Seth Mohabe is said to have led several fraudulent activities.

00:07The student has been released on bond after prosecution failed to convince the court he should continue being detained.

00:18By day, he was just another young man in Nairobi, a dropout trying to find his way in life.

00:23but behind the glow of his laptop investigators say he was running a secret digital empire

00:31one that siphoned millions of shillings from a major betting company his name is seth moib

00:37some call him a hacker others a misunderstood genius this is the shocking story of the 26

00:44year old accused of pulling off one of kenya's boldest cyber heists they established that

00:49the frown was done through by passing the payment service provider imagine being just 26 years old

00:58a university dropout and suddenly finding yourself at the center of a shocking story involving over

01:0411 million shillings hacking and one of kenya's biggest betting firms systems security systems

01:10and they succeeded to defund the the component or the company of the 11 million this is the story

01:18of seth moib once a promising it student now accused of one of the boldest cyber crimes in

01:24the country's history long before the headlines seth moib was simply a boy with a dream born and

01:31raised in kenya he grew up in an ordinary neighborhood one of thousands of young people

01:36navigating a country full of potential but short on opportunity from a young age seth showed an

01:42unusual fascination with machines while others played outside he spent hours tinkering with

01:47computers fascinated by how lines of code could control entire systems that passion led him to

01:54meru university of science and technology where he enrolled in information technology for him this

02:00was more than a degree it was the first step toward becoming a cyber security expert one of the most

02:06sought after careers in the digital world but life was not easy seth's family struggled financially

02:12tuition fees mounted and in his second year he made a difficult decision to drop out friends describe him

02:20as brilliant quiet and passionate about computers he dreamed of becoming a cyber security consultant

02:26the kind of expert who protects systems from hackers ironically it's hacking itself that would thrust

02:32his name into national headlines to many that would have been the end but seth was different he refused

02:39to give up on technology instead he turned his small rented room into his own classroom a space filled

02:45with secondhand laptops open source software and long nights of self-study he devoured online tutorials

02:52read hacking forums and experimented endlessly in those moments seth wasn't just a dropout he was a young

02:59man chasing mastery trying to prove that brilliance doesn't always need a degree he dreamed of becoming

03:05a cyber security consultant the kind of expert companies hire to protect them from the very kind

03:11of hacks he's now accused of carrying out a young man with ambition brilliance and potential until one

03:17decision changed everything to understand seth's story you must first understand the world around him

03:23by the mid-2010s kenya had become the betting capital of africa fueled by love for football cheap

03:30smartphones and the rise of mobile money platforms like mpesa and pesa link betting apps spread like

03:37wildfire billions of shillings flowed daily through platforms like sport pesa betica and others

03:42ordinary kenyan students bota bota riders even teachers were gambling with hopes of changing their lives

03:49overnight but where there is money there are cracks and where there are cracks there are people ready

03:54to exploit them the betting industry was a gold mine but it was also vulnerable weak security systems

04:00over reliance on mobile payments and huge transaction volumes made it a perfect target for cybercrime

04:06for someone with seth skills this world looked less like entertainment and more like an opportunity

04:11waiting to be unlocked prosecutors say seth moeb did more than just test systems they allege he carried

04:17out one of kenya's boldest cyber heists according to investigators seth managed to exploit a

04:23vulnerability in a major betting platform using a combination of custom code and a telegram bot

04:28he allegedly bypassed the company's defenses in just a short window of time 38 unauthorized

04:35transactions were executed the result 11.4 million shillings more than 100 000 us dollars quietly

04:42siphoned through the system the transactions flowed through pesa link a platform designed for

04:47fast bank transfers but instead of transferring salaries or payments this pipeline became the

04:53route for millions for a while it seemed invisible just another stream of money in a sea of betting

04:58transactions but eventually the numbers didn't add up the system flagged irregular activity and

05:04investigators traced it back to one man seth moeb early one morning police stormed seth's apartment in

05:11tattoo city inside they found what they described as a makeshift cyber lab multiple laptops and servers

05:17were spread across the room dozens of sim cards lay scattered on the table a money counting machine

05:23sat next to a small safe several mobile phones connected to different accounts buzzed with alerts

05:28to the police this was the command center of a cyber criminal to seth it was his workshop a space

05:34where he tested software and pursued his dream of becoming a cyber security consultant

05:38but in that moment intent no longer mattered the evidence told its own story and seth was placed

05:44under arrest in custody seth had one explanation he was not a thief but a tester he insisted that the

05:51money was never stolen but appeared during his experiments with custom software he argued that he was

05:56exposing vulnerabilities the same kind of work ethical hackers do to help companies strengthen their

06:01systems the money appeared in my account unexpectedly he claimed to his supporters seth was a young innovator

06:08misunderstood by a system too rigid to recognize talent to his critics he was simply a hacker caught red-handed

06:14the truth they said was in the millions traced back to him in court prosecutors painted seth as a mastermind

06:21they pushed for detention warning that he could interfere with investigations or flee but the judge disagreed

06:27disagreed he ruled that the request to detain him was not justified instead seth was granted bail of 500,000

06:34shillings or a bond of 1 million the conditions were strict he had to report regularly to investigators and

06:41avoid any interference with the case and so seth walked out of court a free man at least temporarily

06:46but his story had already captured national attention on social media debates raged was he a hero or a criminal

06:53a prodigy or a fraudster seth moeb had become more than a man he was now a symbol seth's case highlights

07:00a bigger problem and a bigger promise kenya is known as the silicon savannah a hub of digital innovation

07:06from mobile money to startups it has produced global success stories but with talent comes temptation

07:12across africa cases of digital fraud are rising from mobile money scams to banking hacks

07:18for every young innovator building the future another is testing how far they can bend the system

07:23seth's case forces us to ask is kenya nurturing its young tech minds or leaving them vulnerable to

07:30desperation and misdirection

07:53roberth andedar

08:02roo

08:04roo

08:05roo

08:06roo

08:07roo

08:08roo

08:10You

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended