Kaspersky grave Africa, world warning
According to it, while the number
of attacks from online resources (known as web threats) blocked by Kaspersky (https://Kaspersky.co.za/)
in Kenya and Nigeria combined for the second quarter of 2021 decreased to 14.9
million from the 16.4 million blocked in the first quarter of the year, the
number of unique malicious URLs detected and blocked by Kaspersky in these
countries increased to reach 6.5 million combined when compared to the 5.2
million of the previous quarter.
Globally, Kaspersky solutions
blocked close to 1.7 billion web threats in the same period this year
(https://bit.ly/30uD5pF), an increase of 87%
when compared to 2020 (https://bit.ly/3noY6uK).
Furthermore, its web antivirus
solution recognised more than 675 million (https://bit.ly/3nofjog) unique URLS
as malicious, a significant jump from the 286 million of last year.
“The IT threat landscape is evolving
as more sophisticated technology becomes available. The increase of malicious
URLs in Kenya and Nigeria also indicates how phishing and related malware have
grown in popularity by threat actors in these regions, who are targeting people
working outside of the relative safety of the office network,” Bethwel Opil,
Enterprise Sales Manager, Kaspersky Africa, said.
Web threats (attacks launched
from online resources) are a category of cybersecurity risks that may cause an
undesirable event or action via the internet. A broad scope of dangers fit into
this category, including well-known threats like phishing and computer viruses.
However, other threats like offline data theft can also be considered part of
this group. Web threats are not limited to online activity but ultimately
involve the internet at some stage for inflicted harm.
In fact, more than 30 million web
threats were seen across South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria combined between April
– June 2021.
Kenya accounted for 8,485,345 web
threats blocked by Kaspersky and Nigeria 6,506,385. Significantly, financial
threats are cause for concern globally with Kaspersky solutions blocking the
launch of at least one piece of banking malware on the computers of 119,252
unique users.
Even though Kenya accounted for
only 0.3% and Nigeria 0.4% of the global risk when it comes to these financial
threats, local users must be mindful of how increasingly targeted these attacks
have become. For instance, hackers are using social engineering and other
tactics to develop more personalised attacks against executives and government
leaders.
On the mobile side, globally and
during the same time period, Kaspersky products prevented 14,465,672 malware,
adware and riskware attacks, and Kaspersky found that the largest share of all
detected threats accrued to RiskTool programs: 38.48%.
A RiskTool is a program with
various functions including concealing files in the system, hiding the windows
of running applications or terminating active processes. The group includes
cryptocurrency miners that generate coins using the target device’s resources.
“Of course, there are a variety
of web security threats in the market. They typically include human and
technical manipulation to attack. Some of the most common web threats include
social engineering, malicious code, exploits and cybercrime,” adds Opil.
The main tool behind such
browser-based infections is the exploit pack – which gives cybercriminals a
route to infecting computers that either do not have a security product
installed or has a commonly used operating system or application that is
vulnerable because the user has not applied the latest updates.
“To help mitigate the risk of web
threats, users must always create backups of their data. Furthermore, they
should enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) that introduces additional
layers of user authentication on top of traditional passwords. Regular scans
for infections must also be done. And, perhaps most critically, users must keep
all tools, software, and operating systems up to date,” Opil concluded.
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