Report reveals number of cyber attacks on businesses in Kenya, South Africa, Zambia rise by 76%

Liquid C2, an arm of Liquid Intelligent Technologies, has revealed that the number of cyber attacks on businesses in Kenya, South Africa, and Zambia increased by 76 percent.

This is according to the latest cyber security report – ‘The Evolving Cyber Security Landscape in Africa 2022’.

Featuring research, analysis, and findings across the three countries on the evolving cyber security threats present in Africa, the report shows that cyber attacks against all large enterprises ramped up dramatically.

Kenyan businesses reported an 82 percent rise in such attacks, while South African and Zambian businesses recorded a 63 and 62 percent increase each.

“The biggest concern emerging from this report is that companies are saying that they’ve put a lot more cyber security controls in place.

“With threats evolving faster than security systems, companies cannot afford to get complacent,” says David Behr, Chief Executive Officer of Liquid C2.

Behr said the report highlights that businesses must be consistently vigilant about the ever-evolving cybercrime landscape and the methods malicious actors use to breach cyber security measures.

“As the report shows, complacency is a luxury no one can afford. There are reasons to be optimistic; all the respondents in the report highlighted that they had advanced significantly in their cloud and digital strategies and cyber security capabilities,” he said.

Behr furthermore said the majority of the companies interviewed in the research said they had appointed cyber security staff members or signed up with a cyber security team in the past year.

He said Kenya had the highest percentage at 82 percent, followed by South Africa ay 63 percent and Zambia at 62 percent.

Behr said the research highlights that over half of all large enterprises in the three countries were victims of a successful cyber attack, with 90 percent of them being Kenyan businesses.

“Increasingly sophisticated methods like Cybercrime-as-a-Service (CAAS) are becoming more popular in Africa, meaning businesses can no longer rely on outdated technologies and processes,” he said.

Behr said the top method of attack used by cybercriminals targeting companies was through email, using Phishing or Spam attacks at 61, with attacks through compromised passwords following at 48 percent and data breaches and attacks at 44percent being the second and third most common.

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