Kenya Is The Third Most Targeted Country In Africa By Cyber Criminals, Report

Kenya’s communications regulator has said the country experienced a record 860 million cyber-attacks in the last 12 months.

The regulator said that “the frequency, sophistication and scale of cyber-threats” targeted at Kenya’s critical information infrastructure had increased dramatically.

For comparison, in 2017, Kenya experienced 7.7 million cyber attacks.

In July, a high-profile cyber attack attributed to the pro-Russian hacking group, Anonymous Sudan, cut off access to more than 5,000 online government services in the country, including visa, passport and driving licence applications and renewals.

Malicious software

The attack also disabled online train booking systems and mobile money transactions.

The Communications Authority of Kenya on Monday said that 79 per cent of the attacks recorded in the last 12 months were caused by cyber criminals infiltrating the computer systems of organisations.

The regulator also said that 14 per cent of the attacks involved malicious software, 6.5 per cent involved cybercriminals flooding servers with traffic to overload their infrastructure and the remaining attacks targeted web applications.

According to the regulator, Kenya is now the third most targeted country by cyber criminals in Africa, after Nigeria and South Africa.