The rising usage of mobile money payments and remote working, has resulted in increased cybercrimes more so since advent of the Covid-19 scourge, a new report shows.
The latest Africa Cyber Security Outlook report by advisory services firm KPMG has revealed that ransomware, business email compromise and data leakages are some of the top cyber threats affecting businesses in Africa.
“Countries such as Kenya have faced ransomware attacks on supply chain networks that were interconnected using cyber-physical systems,” read the report.
The most affected sectors were financial services, energy and natural resources, and information communication technology.
The report revealed that the top threat faced by African companies was business email compromise, according to 26 percent of respondents, 17 percent cited ransomware, 15 percent data leakages and five percent pointed out supply chain attacks.
“The increase in cashless payments, work-from-home enablement, and relatively low public-private partnership activity across Africa has resulted in an increase in cybercrimes after the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the report. It said the increase in cyber incidents was driven by factors such as monetisation of cyber-attacks, attractiveness of personal information assets for syndicates, easy access to attack tools, credential sales by initial access brokers, and availability of ransomware-as-a-service offerings.
The firm urged businesses to set aside a budget for cyber security to ensure an adequate war chest to combat the threats.
