Nigeria Among Three Most Targeted On Cyberextortion — Report
Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya are the most often targeted for cybercrime in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a new report shows.
The report, ‘Impact of Cyberextortion on Africa’, was released by KnowBe4, a security awareness provider, in conjunction with the International Data Corporation (IDC), a global provider of market intelligence.
“Organisations in these countries lose millions of dollars annually to cyberextortion. These amounts are set to grow over time unless local organisations drastically improve their cybersecurity strategies and security cultures,” the report states.
It shows that only a third (17) of Africa’s 54 countries have established national cybersecurity strategies.
Despite the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection (a treaty also known as the Malabo Convention), drafted in 2014, only 14 out of the 54 countries in Africa have signed the treaty, and only eight had ratified it at the end of 2020.
It lists data leakages, insider threats, phishing, ransomware and cloud-related attacks, and ransomware as the top five threats faced by organisations in SSA.
The report further states that data leakages, insider threats, and targeted attacks, including the use of malicious emails, were identified as the top three threats facing SSA organisations in 2022.
As nearly 60 per cent of organisations across SSA plan to increase their connectivity and Internet of Things (IoT) utilisation over the next 12 months, this means a larger surface area for cybercrime, it explains.
According to the report, the number of cyber threats facing organisations in Africa, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, has grown exponentially over the last few years.
“There is a linear relationship between the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP) and cybercrime; as one increases, so does the other.”
Being the most affected, cybercrime-related losses during 2017 amounted to nearly $3.5 billion, with South Africa; Nigeria, $649 million; and Kenya, $210 million.
It also states that on average, ransomware payments climbed to $570,000 in the first half of 2021, up from $312,000 in 2020.
Annual cybercrime losses in Africa had further increased to approximately $4.12 billion by December 2020, a report by Serianu, a Kenyan Cyber Security and Business Consulting firm shows.
To develop security measures, more organisations on the continent are to adopt cloud environments against on-premises systems, especially in the mana during and government industry, the KnowBe4 and IDC report adds.
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