Kaspersky’s recent statement sheds light on the cyber threat landscape in Africa, noting Nigeria’s concerning trend of an 8% increase in banking malware attacks in 2023.
Despite an overall 10% decrease in threats nationwide, the rise in attacks targeting online banking credentials and sensitive information is a significant cause for alarm.
The statement read:
- “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%.”
Trends in other countries
- The statement underscores a broader trend across the African region. While South Africa witnessed a notable 29% decrease in overall cyber threats, phishing attacks leveraging social engineering tactics soared by 29%.
- Similarly, Kenya experienced an 8% reduction in overall threats yet faced a surge in ransomware attacks by 68%, backdoors by 47%, exploits by 22%, and phishing by 19%.
- Analysis from Kaspersky also reveals the varying impact of online threats across different countries. Turkiye emerged with the highest number of users affected by online threats at 41.8%, followed closely by Kenya (39.2%), Qatar (38.8%), and South Africa (35%).
- Conversely, Oman (23.4%) and Egypt (27.4%) experienced fewer instances of user impact, trailed by Saudi Arabia (29.9%) and Kuwait (30.8%).
The role of AI, geopolitical and economic tension
Director of the META Research Centre Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) at Kaspersky, Amin Hasbini, attributes the evolving cybersecurity landscape to the proliferation of advanced technologies like AI, alongside escalating geopolitical and economic turbulence within the META region.
These factors collectively contribute to the increasing sophistication and diversity of cyber threats, posing significant challenges for cybersecurity efforts.
Hasbini said:
- “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.”