Kenya records 6 million cyber attacks

Kenya reported six million cyber attacks in 2019 targeting both government and private institutions, according to the annual report presented in Parliament.

The report on the state of national security indicates that during the year under review, the key cyber-crime incidents witnessed include SIM swap, unauthorised intrusions into IT systems commonly known as hacking, insider threat and identity theft and web application attacks.

The report tabled during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s State of the Nation address shows that majority of the cybercrime during the period under review was motivated by financial gain.

According to the report, the vice is prevalent within key government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), savings and credit cooperative societies, banks and telecommunication service providers.

The President noted that a total of 1,203 cases were examined at the DCI Digital Forensic Laboratory compared to 992 cases received in 2018, representing an increase of 280 cases attributed to the emerging digital trends and transnational nature of crime.

“During the period under review, the country made remarkable stride in Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) sector amidst invariable rise in cyber-crime and online fraud cases,” reads the report.

The report indicates that a total of 360 cybercrime cases were presented in courts during the year under review while there are 50 other on-going network forensic investigations at the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) offices in Mombasa and KRA offices in Nairobi and Mombasa.

The report notes that underlying factors such as limited human and capital resources such as forensic tools used at the laboratory have largely affected the government effort in combating cybercrimes in the country. The complex and trans-national nature of cyber-crime have also hampered the enforcement of the law at the national level.