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Kenya, S Africa key cyberattack targets - report

Continent faces significant threats from increasingly advanced attacks.

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by The Star

Kenya06 February 2023 - 14:59
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In Summary


•Last year, there was an increase in supply chain attacks with breaches occurring in the Okta cloud-based identity management platform.

•Major malware families like Emotet (Botnet), Nanocore (RAT), and Qbot (Trojan) are expected to cause major disruptions on the continent.

Cybersecurity researchers have found evidence they say could link North Korea with the WannaCry cyber attack

Kenya and South Africa have become major cyberattack targets in Africa in the wake of the rapid adoption of cloud solutions, an industry survey shows.

The survey by American-Israeli multinational, Check Point Software, anticipates supply chain attacks will continue through 2023,  with a significant amount of risk coming from the open source community.

Last year, there was an increase in supply chain attacks with breaches occurring in the Okta cloud-based identity management platform.

“Typically, suppliers relying on these open source systems have not properly vetted them or have been lax in managing these environments, resulting in cybersecurity weak points emerging,” the report notes.

In South Africa and Kenya, many companies are moving workloads to the cloud.

Hypervisors like AWS, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle have established data centres in these countries.

 This has seen more businesses and consumers turning to cloud security solutions to safeguard their systems and data.

With Africa experiencing the highest volume of cyberattacks in the world last year, according to the Check Point Software 2022 Security Report, organisations and consumers are urged to become more aware of the threats they face in the digital landscape.

During the past six months, there has been an increase in cyberattacks targeting the government, insurance, and finance sectors.

On average, there have been more than 1,450 attacks per week in South Africa with a mores similar trend being witnessed in Kenya.

“This trend will likely continue over the coming months as more threats start coming from cloud and mobile platforms. Threat actors will not limit their focus to South Africa and will potentially target countries across the continent,” the firm notes.

The expanding remote workforce, which picked during the Covid-19 pandemic,  has resulted in many organisations relying on the collaboration of services and applications on several platforms.

Many businesses across southern and eastern Africa allow their staff to access corporate information on mobile devices without ensuring that enhanced security has been implemented.

According to the firm, top malware families like Hiddad will continue to gain access to android-based mobile devices, repackaging legitimate apps, and distributing them to third-party stores.

These apps facilitate access to key security features built-in the operating system.

Even more malware alternatives will come to prominence in 2023, the firm notes.

Major malware families like Emotet (Botnet), Nanocore (RAT), and Qbot (Trojan) are expected to cause major disruptions on the continent.

“This will require organisations to place emphasis on security controls with a threat prevention approach across all their platforms. Doing so will strengthen their defences against ransomware and supply chain threats,” the report reads in part.

Globally, ransomware was the number one threat in 2022.

Uncertainty across the various African economies around service delivery and critical infrastructure will likely see more countries face cyberattacks targeting the government.

To mitigate against this risk, both public and private sectors are advised to embrace a robust architecture that provides uncompromised security and unparalleled operational efficiency.

For instance, the number of cyberthreats reported to the Kenyan National Cyber Crime Centre (NCC) in the first quarter of the 2022/23 year rose by almost 200 per cent.

According to the Communication Authority of Kenya the number of cyberattacks detected in the country in the three months ending September 2022 stood at 278 million. This is almost three times the number of threats reported in previous quarter.

The country has implemented a number of initiatives to strengthen its cybersecurity infrastructure, including the establishment of the National Cyber Security Authority and the National Computer Incident Response Team (National KE-CIRT/CC).

Their mandate is to coordinate response and manage cybersecurity incidents nationally and to collaborate with relevant actors locally, regionally, and internationally.

The availability of more advanced technology means organisations can strengthen their defensive stances.

For instance, Kenyan businesses have embraced the Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) approaches.

These combine both the network system and security measures to enable organisations to manage both the network and network security together.

 It has become common for employees to connect to a company’s systems via a VPN from home or a coworking space, and use services provided in the cloud to carry out their work.

With workplace and data asset locations diversifying, it has become more difficult for a company’s IT department to manage everything under a unified security policy.

ZTNA and SASE bring network services and security services together, making it possible to maintain security without getting in the way of employee work.

The cyberthreat landscape in the coming months is however expected to put pressure on companies across Africa and the rest of the world.

"There is simply no respite from ransomware and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. This puts users under increasing pressure to keep up to date with the latest trends in the threat landscape. We know that these criminals are continually evolving in how they develop and perpetrate attacks,” Check Point regional director for Africa, Pankaj Bhula, said.

He added: “With smaller, more agile malicious groups looking to exploit any potential weak points in company and end user defences, people cannot afford to not take cybersecurity seriously.”

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