- Last year alone, Kenya had 860 million cyber threats, and these were those that targeted critical national infrastructure and not those targeted at individuals and private companies.
- Of those, the CA was only able to give advisories of around 23 million of the threats, she said, emphasizing the need to build capacity.
Image: BRIAN OTIENO
Kenya is among the top three African countries targeted by hackers, cyber terrorists and other cyber threats, the Communication Authority of Kenya has said.
The other two countries are South Africa and Nigeria.
CA director of cyber security Vincent Ngundi on Friday said this calls for more efforts in securing Kenya’s cyberspace which in turn calls for building of capacity of frontline cyber security personnel through awareness and mentoring of the next generation of cyber defenders.
“Kenya has for the last two decades witnessed wave after wave of technological transformation that is catalyzing the country’s socio-economic development.
“At the same time, we have witnessed interesting trends in cyber threats targeted at our country which have been characterized by increased frequency, sophistication and scale,” Ngundi said.
He spoke on Friday in Mombasa at the conclusion of the five-day Coast edition of the CA cyber security hackathon and boot camp.
The boot camp and hackathon series, organized by the CA in conjunction with Huawei Kenya and the Kenya Cyber Security and Forensics Association, is meant to build resilience and capacity among youth to become white hat hackers also known as ethical hackers.
White hat hackers exploit computer systems or networks to identify their security flaws so they can make recommendations for improvement.
They are the antithesis of black hat hackers.
Ngundi said five years ago, cyber-attacks directed at Kenya stood at 7.7 million.
However, in 2023, the attacks have skyrocketed to a high of 860 million, ranking Kenya among the top three most targeted countries in Africa.
CA’s Jane Kinyanjui said Kenya is well on its way to becoming a digitally transformed nation but has been using only about 4,200 gigabytes per second of the available 9,400 gigabytes per second bandwidth.
She said last year alone, Kenya had 860 million cyber threats, and these were those that targeted critical national infrastructure and not those targeted at individuals and private companies.
Of those, the CA was only able to give advisories of around 23 million of the threats, she said, emphasizing the need to build capacity.
According to Kinyanjui, there are 11 million social media users in the country and all these are exposed to online harm.
“11 million social media users means that somebody will send my mum a link telling her to click there and seek the blessings of the day and that link might be spyware or a crypto-scam,” Kinyanjui said.
“Or it could mean me and my girlfriends seeing a very good deal for a holiday or an oven and it’s a scam.”
She said in the 20 years that CA has been around, the authority has been out to make sure that reliable internet is available across the country.
She said the cap for the cyber security workforce is so big that youth need to venture into it.
“Whether it is being employed in that role (by the authority) or being an independent solutions provider, you have to be involved,” the authority’s Jane Kinyanjui told participants during the Mombasa series.
On Friday, the winners of the Mombasa series of the boot camp were a team made of Lenox Akhoya, Zainab Juma and Sherry Obare while Elias Omondi, Felix Murithi and Nicholas Mwangi emerged second.
In the Hackathon, Thee Goats emerged as the winners and Be-Hackers were second.
The winners will represent Mombasa in the national competition to be held on October 16 during a four-day conference in Naivasha to commemorate the cyber security month, where matters of cyber security will be discussed.
October is Cyber Security Awareness Month and this year’s theme is “The Paradox of Progress: Securing a Digital Nation”.
Ngundi, who represented director-general Ezra Chiloba, said the hackathon and boot camp series will now be held in the regions and so far there have been three of the series outside of Nairobi, including Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret.
From Monday to Friday, the competition will move to Nyeri.
CA Coast regional manager Bernard Maranga said second to politics in the country, ICT is the most dynamic sphere and so are the threats and challenges that face the industry.
“Through partnerships and collaborations is the only way we can make solutions that can sustain the industry,” Maranga said.
Kenya Cyber Security and Forensics Association vice chair Fredrick Wahome said decentralization of cyber discussions will go a long way to helping more people join the conversation.
He said he has been pushing for innovation within cyberspace.
“We are already into digital transformation and we have seen immense growth in ICT. But the more we keep growing the more we are attracting the bad people out there,” Wahome said.
He said Kenya cannot continue to import solutions from Israel.
“Yet they are doing a good job but it is possible for us to learn from them and challenge our young people to get into this cyber security sector and become experts,” he said.
He said it does not matter the grades one gets in high school to become a cyber security expert.
“If all factors are in place, we need partners who can hold the youth’s hands. We need anti-viruses made from Mombasa,” said Wahome.
Huawei Kenya’s ICT talent manager Vanessa Ireri said the bootcamp and hackathon series attracted over 6,000 applications, over 4,000 of which were from the Coast region.
Ireri said Huawei Kenya has many programs relevant to the youth.
They have established an ICT Academy and Competition that equips learners with advanced training for university students.
The firm has also partnered with over 50 universities and Technical and Vocational Education Training institutions across the country to build a skilled workforce in cyberspace and the technology sector.
“We also have the DigiTruck that targets youth in rural areas with more basic training. Our aim is to train at least 5,000 Kenyans each year,” Ireri said.