Cyber threats in Kenya Grow Eight Times in One Year

The Communication Authority (CA) has warned that the global rise of malware including ransomware is exposing more users to cyber-attacks. CA’s statistics show that cyber threats have grown eight times in the last year.

Experts warn that the cybersecurity threat will rise in tandem with Kenya’s budding internet access landscape. “In our experience, cybercriminals exploit whatever they can, including increased Internet access in growing economies, for their own gain,” Riaan Badenhorst, General Manager of Kaspersky in Africa told WeeTracker.

In its latest quarterly report, the authority said that total cyber threats events spiked at 26.6 million between the period of April to June 2019, compared to 11.6 million events in the previous quarter.

In the same period last year (April – June 2018) the authority reported 3.4 million events, signalling the exponential growth in cyber threats.

“This increase in the number of cyber threat events detected is attributed to the global increase in malware including ransomware attacks during this period,” the CA stated in the report.

In the latest quarter, malware contributed 21.1 million events from the total cyber threat incidences.

It added that “The National KE-CIRT/CC analyzed the cyber threat events and issued cyber threat advisories to the affected critical infrastructure service providers. During the period April – June 2019, the National KE-CIRT/CC issued 16,347 advisories, which is a 15.3% increase from the 14,174 advisories sent in the previous period.”

It is in this period that several government websites were hacked by an Indonesia cyber attackers, showing laxity in government circles in regards to cybersecurity.

Cyber Threats Are Growing Rapidly

“In our experience, both the public and private sectors are certainly paying strong attention to the need for cybersecurity protection and strategies and are taking the necessary steps to ensure such strategies are in place,” Badenhorst said.

“Despite this, the reality is that cyber threats are evolving rapidly with new and highly sophisticated threats emerging constantly and businesses across sectors are feeling the pressure in terms of how to keep up with the evolving threat landscape to ensure full-proof protection,” he added.

In an emboldened world of cyber threats, users should have the tools to detect, respond timely and be able to predict any future attacks.

Even so, government institutions, companies and individuals shouldn’t be afraid of the internet, rather, they should be proactive in ensuring the security of their systems, Badenhorst urged.

“Whether that is privacy, family, finances, customers, business networks and data, or critical infrastructure. And these aspects can be secured with the right security expertise, technologies, solutions and services,” he underlined.

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