Nigeria records 10 per cent drop in cyber threats

GLOBAL cybersecurity and digital privacy firm, Kaspersky, has disclosed that across all cyber th reats land - scape, Nigeria witnessed a 10 per cent drop in 2023.

Kaspersky experts revealed this during the evolution of the cyberthreat landscape in the region during its ninth yearly Cyber Security Weekend – META 2024, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with a focus on the security of emerging technology trends such as artificial intelligence ( AI).

In parallel, the experts also raised concern targeting industrial control systems within critical infrastructure, in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Kasper sky' s Cyber Immunity approach took c entre stage to create solutions that are virtually impossible to compromise and that minimise the number of potential vulnerabilities.

According to the firm, Kaspersky’s telemetry showed that the number of overall cyberthreats in South Africa decreased by 29 per cent in 2023 as compared to 2022.

At the same time, phishing attacks that use social engineering tactics to scam people into revealing sensitive information rose by 29 per cent. Over the same period, Kenya saw a decrease in overall threats by eight per cent while an increase was seen in ransomware attacks by 68 per cent, backdoors by 47 per cent, exploits by 22 per cent and phishing by 19 per cent.

“Nigeria saw an overall decrease in all threats by 10 per cent while banking malware attacks designed to collect online banking credentials and other sensitive information from infected machines increased by eight per cent,” it stated.

According to Kaspersky's analysis, online threats caused by vulnerabilities on web pages, in emails or web services have fluctuated significantly in the region. Turkiye saw the highest number of users affected by online threats ( 41.8 per cent), followed by Kenya ( 39.2 per cent), Qatar ( 38.8 per cent) and South Africa ( 35 per cent). Fewer users were affected in Oman ( 23.4 per cent) and Egypt ( 27.4 per cent) followed by Saudi Arabia ( 29.9 per cent) and Kuwait ( 30.8 per cent).

Director of META Research Center Global Research and Analysis Team ( GREAT),

Kaspersky, Amin Hasbini, said: “As the cybersecurity landscape evolves, cyber threats continue to become diverse and sophisticated. This trend is particularly evident due to the emergence of advanced technologies like AI and the escalating geopolitical and economic turbulence within the Middle East, Turkiye, Africa ( META) region. These factors collectively contribute to the surge in cybercrime and the heightened complexity of cyberattacks.”