Vaccine quest pushed up healthcare cyber attacks - CA official

The Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) official who requested anonymity, said the race on who would first develop the vaccine led to a number of firms spying on rivals' progress.

"In the quest for searching for a vaccine, many companies breached on each other's privacy in terms of seeking the blue print," the official told the Star.

He noted that this was a global trend that was also observed in Kenya. Last December, the United State's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) warned about the alarming trends.

Sixty-eight global attacks on healthcare facilities were reported in the last quarter of 2021 alone.

The Economic Survey 2022 shows that the number of cyber threats more than doubled to 339.1 million in 2021 from 139.9 million in 2020.

The survey shows that healthcare systems were the most targeted by hackers who included state-sponsored groups and cyber terrorists.

State organisations and financial institutions were also said to be on the radar of hacktivists in the same period.

Out of the cyber threats reported last year, system vulnerabilities saw the highest rise from 114,675 to 58 million.

Vulnerabilities within an operating system can occur when a program code allows a computer virus to access the device and take control.

CAK data shows the overall number of cyber threats more than doubled in the current financial year starting July 2021.

The regulator reported an all time high of 359.2 million threats, a 133 per cent increase from 154.4 million recorded in the 2020-21 financial year and 110.9 million in 2019.

The growing threat was attributed to increase in users accessing the internet, creating a larger pool of targets for online criminals.

CAK chief executive Ezra Chiloba said there is an urgent need for Kenya to evaluate its national cyber readiness and resilience to mitigating against the increasing threats.

He said the authority is depending on the recently unveiled Cyber security Readiness and Resilience Measurement Tool for early detection of cyber threats.

The tool assesses cyber security preparedness at organisational and individual level.

---