BY SPECIAL REPORTER
ACCORDING to CheckPoint Software Technologies (CST), an average of 1,615 cyber-attacks has been said to affect organisations in Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and other African countries, making the continent the highest victims of the attacks.
The firm also disclosed that 2021 recorded a 50 percent rise in overall attacks per week on corporate networks globally, compared to the year before.
An expert in the Field of Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics, Mr.Yusuph Kileo said,the sectors which recorded the highest number of cyber-attacks were Education/Research with an average of 1,468 attacks per organisation, each week (increase of 60 per cent from 2020), followed by Government/Military with 1,082 (40 per cent increase) and Healthcare with 752 (55 per cent increase).
"The increase in multi-vector attacks designed to infect multiple components of an IT infrastructure in 2021, is alarming, such attacks are the biggest challenge facing security practitioners, requiring effective measures to be put in place, such as preventing the attacks before they happen and employing a security architecture that enables and facilitates a single, cohesive protection.
"Based on trends observed last year where consumers have relied on contactless delivery and click-and-collect services to conduct daily activities, our personal data is at risk, more advanced scams are coming, and there will be fewer targeted ransomware attacks this year,"said Mr.Kileo.
He said,the strong international cooperation and multiple ransomware task forces now in place is set to reduce the number of such attacks during 2022. "We anticipate Ransomware attacks may resurface later and also with a greater focus on countries with poor cyber-investigative capabilities.
"There’s now a massive amount of our personal data such as our address, mobile number and payment details out there across websites and apps for cybercriminals to access,".
"There’s a higher likelihood of cyber gangs obtaining these details via comprised websites or unsecured networks and scammers mimicking the brands to trick consumers into stealing their data through phishing attacks.
"Keeping the previous point in mind, We should be on high alert for suspicious emails, texts, social media messages, app notifications and phone calls — scammers are continually advancing their methods and that we should watch out for new tactics this year.
As cryptocurrency and NFTs becomes popular digital assets, and all transactions take place online, this makes them an attractive target for cybercrime groups and state-sponsored threat actors.
"The recent activity of sophisticated, cutting edge attackers like Lazarus and its subunit BlueNoroff, direct attacks on employees of cryptocurrency startups and exchanges, through to sophisticated social engineering, software exploits and even fake suppliers, to mass attacks via supply-chain software,We should expects a significant wave of attacks on cryptocurrency businesses this year.
In addition, “We’re also likely to see more incidents of NFT property theft, and given this is a new area, there is likely a shortage of specialist police investigators which therefore could result in an initial surge of these attacks”.
"Such threats will affect the global cryptocurrency markets and the share price of individual companies, which the attackers will monetise via stock market illegal insights trading.
"This year (2022) we also expect a rise in stolen data being offered on black markets -it’s a motivational factor for cybercriminals to delve into the field of data theft and illegal trading.
"As a result, we believe there will be more databases, internal communications and personal details stolen from local companies and traded on the black market this year,"He said.