NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 13 – Cyber-attacks on Kenyan firms grew by 943 percent to 1.29 billion in the three months to December last year, a new industry report shows, highlighting the growing online risks that organizations in the country are facing.
This represented a big leap from the 123.9 million cases that were reported between July and September 2023.
According to the Communication Authority of Kenya’s (CA’s) Second Quarter Statistics Report, system vulnerabilities led the attacks with 1.27 billion, followed by malware attacks with 13.22 million.
Others were brute force attacks with 9.67 million; web application attacks with 72,536; and mobile application attacks with 52,705.
Adoption of technology in workplaces and retail industries, among others, has increased companies’ exposure to online vulnerabilities that have seen hackers pocket billions of shillings in ransom.
High exposure to such attacks saw the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) warn local lenders of the susceptibility of cyberattacks and other forms of digital fraud in 2017.
As a precautionary measure, firms have implemented cyber security measures to prevent future vulnerabilities in the digital world.
Likewise, a total of 8.06 million threat advisories were issued, a growth from 5.58 million in the review period.
System vulnerabilities led with the number of advice requests at 3.5 million, web application attacks at 2.04 million, malware at 781, 561, mobile application attacks at 34, 425, digital investigations at 270, and digital forensics at 213.
