Nigeria, Three Others Suffer 85 Million Malware Attacks

Cyberattacks via malware intrusion have continued to increase in Africa with four countries suffering 85 million attacks in the last six months.

Kaspersky, which disclosed this, said malware has become rife across Africa with various countries exhibiting strong growth in all malware types in the first half of 2021, when compared to the same period last year.

According to it, this is a five per cent increase in the region, as cybercriminals and hackers continue to focus on African countries considering digital transformation, advancements and the increase in remote working resulting from the Pandemic.

A malware attack is a common cyberattack where malware (normally malicious software) executes unauthorised actions on the victim’s system. The malicious software (a.k.a. virus) encompasses many specific types of attacks such as ransomware, spyware, command and control.

Kaspersky, a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company, said, overall, four countries account for 85 million attacks, with South Africa being the most targeted (32 million), followed by Kenya (28.3 million), Nigeria (16.7 million) and Ethiopia (eight million).

It pointed out that all countries, but Kenya, saw the relative growth of all malware attacks. Ethiopia and Nigeria saw increase of 20 per cent and 23 per cent respectively and South Africa 14 per cent, while Kenya’s number of attacks decreased by 13 per cent.