Kaspersky’s recent statement illuminates the cybersecurity landscape in Africa, highlighting a troubling trend in Nigeria where banking malware attacks increased by 8% in 2023.
Despite an overall 10% decrease in threats nationwide, the surge in attacks targeting online banking credentials and sensitive information is a cause for substantial concern.
According to the statement, “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%.”
This trend extends across the African region. While South Africa witnessed a notable 29% decrease in overall cyber threats, there was a corresponding 29% increase in phishing attacks utilizing social engineering tactics.
Similarly, Kenya reported an 8% reduction in overall threats but faced a surge in ransomware attacks by 68%, backdoors by 47%, exploits by 22%, and phishing by 19%.
Kaspersky’s analysis also reveals the varying impact of online threats across different countries. Turkiye had 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, followed by Saudi Arabia (29.9%) and Kuwait (30.8%).
Amin Hasbini, the Director of the META Research Centre Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) at Kaspersky, 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.
