There was an increase in the number of cyber threats targeted at Kenya’s cyber space with over 10.2 million cyber events detected during the second quarter of 2018/19 as compared to 3.8 million in the previous quarter, a new report by the Communications Authority shows.
It says the cyber threat events detected varied from Denial-of-Service (DOS) attacks which hampered the availability of computer services; online abuse which included online fraud, hate speech, incitement to violence and fake news; online impersonation via social media accounts and domain names; web application attacks which included website defacement and illegal access to online applications; Malware attacks which mainly included phishing attacks; and attacks perpetrated through the exploitation of misconfigured systems.
During this period under review, 12,197 cyber threat advisories were issued to the affected
organisations marking 91% increase from the advisories sent out to affected institutions in
previous quarter.
Similarly, according to the CA sector review report, there was an increase in cyber threat activity globally. In particular, there was a rise in cases of malware and the sale of stolen data and credentials
including personal data and credit card information.
“The quarter saw an exponential increase in the number of malware attacks as well as the number
of misconfigured systems. There was also an increase in the number of fake mobile applications
hosted on popular online stores, which were used to deliver malware to mobile devices and
defraud unsuspecting users,” it adds.
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