Africa’s increased mobile subscriber penetration of 44 percent and minimal attention to cybersecurity have made the continent particularly attractive as a choice target for cybercriminals.
CheckPoint Software Technologies, globally recognised provider of cybersecurity solutions, says although internet penetration in Africa was only 35.2 percent in December 2017, 19.2 percent behind the world average, cybercrime remains a serious threat to countries in Africa who face the main challenge of securing their cyber space. This is especially because the continent has seen rapid growth in numbers of mobile phone subscribers, expected to hit 52 percent in 2025.
The company has therefore recognised Africa as an important region for growth and investment in software technology solutions for cybersecurity.
“The sheer economy of scale offered by mobile devices is incredibly appealing to cybercriminals. They are using every available opportunity to attack individuals and organisations through their mobile devices, including Apps, particularly because these devices are so popular and people usually do not take as strict precautions when it comes to securing them as they would with their laptops for example,” says Rick Rogers, regional director, Africa at CheckPoint.
Two major vulnerabilities related to mobile devices over the past month have been discovered by CheckPoint, – Man-in-the-Disk, which its researchers discovered as a new attack surface for Android apps exploiting a shortcoming in the way that Android apps use storage resources, and FakesApp, which researchers discovered a vulnerability in WhatsApp that allows a threat actor to intercept and manipulate messages sent by those in a group or private conversation.
It is no surprise that mobile attacks are having a major impact on organisations is Nigeria. One of the key markets in Africa, Nigeria has become a mobile-first country, with mobile penetration increasing from 53% in 2016 to 84% in 2017. And considering the availability of phones is at a lower price point, more Nigerians are now able to afford a mobile device.
Even though major malware like Ransomware, crypto miner and banking Trojans have had, and continue to have a big impact, it is mobile attacks on Nigerian companies that are growing in prevalence. When comparing the impact of these attacks on the global market, experts find that Nigeria averaged 20% – 35% higher between January and August this year.
“The current threat landscape has evolved into a much more aggressive beast. We are now experiencing Gen V (5th Generation) cyber-attacks, which are characterised as large-scale and fast moving across multiple industries. These sophisticated attacks on mobile, cloud and various enterprise networks, easily bypass conventional defences being used by most organisations today as they rely on older generations of security,” says Rogers.
Seeing that Africa is increasingly under threat from cybercriminals, the need for local businesses to partner with security specialists that can help them remain one step ahead of the game is essential.
To ensure that enterprises across Africa have access to the expertise and technology needed to protect themselves from sophisticated attacks on all fronts, the company has invested in growing its local teams in North Africa, East Africa, South Africa, SADC and West Africa.
