By Kaspersky
Published February 21, 2024
A report by Kaspersky, a cybersecurity company, shows that the number of overall cyberthreats in South Africa decreased by 29% in 2023 as compared to 2022. At the same time, phishing attacks that use social engineering tactics to scam people into revealing sensitive information rose by 29%. Over the same period, Kenya saw a decrease in overall threats by 8% while an increase was seen in ransomware attacks by 68%, backdoors by 47%, exploits by 22% and phishing by 19%. Nigeria saw an overall decrease in all threats by 10% while banking malware attacks designed to collect online banking credentials and other sensitive information from infected machines increased by 8%.
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Kaspersky’s analysis shows that online threats caused by vulnerabilities on web pages, in emails or webservices, have fluctuated significantly in the region.
“As the cybersecurity landscape evolves, cyber threats continue to become diverse and sophisticated. This trend is particularly evident due to the emergence of advanced technologies like AI and the escalating geopolitical and economic turbulence within the Middle East, Turkiye, Africa (META) region. These factors collectively contribute to the surge in cybercrime and the heightened complexity of cyberattacks,” Amin Hasbini, Director of META Research Center Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) at Kaspersky, says.