•Kenya is one of the top countries affected by cyber security in the continent with 30,000 attacks in the past three months.
•The value of ICT output increased by 6.9 per cent from Sh 529.8 billion in 2020 to Sh 566.3 billion in 2021.
Kenya remains vulnerable to cyber-attacks, tech firm SEACOM has said, with cases on the rise in recent times.
According to the firm's East Africa managing director Tejpal Bedi, the country has experienced 30,000 attacks in the past three months alone.
Most affected or targerted are financial institutions, Information Technology(IT), and public sector industries.
Kenya, South Africa and Egypt are among the top attack destinations in the continent.
“This year, Kenya experienced the highest volume of attacks on the African continent, reaching a record of 600 Gbps,” Bedi said.
He adds that attacks in the country on average last between 10 to 60 minutes, which is above the continent and the global average of five to 10 minutes, and the longest attack lasts seven straight days.
To help mitigate the issue among its customers, the company has unveiled a number of products in the market, adding to already existing ones.
They include Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) which consolidates several networking and security functions and The Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) solution, that arms enterprises with real-time monitoring and analytical capabilities.
According to the company, the products work by making users' data and network invisible to hackers, hence limiting the chances of invasion.
In the event of attempted users’ data invasion, the system blocks the access and sends an alert to both the user and network intelligence system, and the hacker gets blocked.
SEACOM business group managing director Grant Morgan further noted that Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) solutions also works with SASE and SIEM.
Together, they enable the company to offer users more enhanced security.
“Today, hybridity defines the workplace experience that calls for the need to support and, most importantly, secure their employees, infrastructure, and data. Solutions such as SASE allow us to consolidate the security tools clients are already using,” Morgan said.
He further stated that the deployment of managed services adds a new layer to the company’s impact, striving to close the skills gaps and positively contribute to the training of IT professionals.
“Security skills are the hardest to find within IT, and the best people are in demand. With the help of our partners, we can leverage those skills to not only deliver the best in managed services but also lay the foundation for localized expertise,” he said.
Meanwhile, technology plays a crucial role in the country’s economy, as it is relied on by various sectors.
The economic survey 2022 shows that the value of ICT output increased by 6.9 per cent from Sh 529.8 billion in 2020 to Sh 566.3 billion in 2021.
The penetration rate for mobile subscriptions grew to 131.88 per 100 inhabitants in 2021.
During the review period, utilised bandwidth grew by 20.0 per cent to 4.8 million megabites per second (Mbps).
Total fixed and wireless subscriptions increased by 4.5 per cent to 46.4 million in 2021.
Fibre to the home broadband subscriptions increased from 340,271 to 410,762, while the fibre to the office broadband grew by 11.8 per cent to 67,198 in 2021.