This archive report was first published on 29 June 2020.
East Africa has witnessed a significant surge in insider-related cyber security incidents, with a 55% increase in the last three months.
According to Dimension Data, this spike is largely attributed to attackers exploiting publicly available weak systems and security controls designed to monitor and capture activities as more employees remotely connect to company resources from mobile devices and external networks.
The Financial Services Industry (FSI) remains the most targeted sector due to the immediate monetary gain.
Speaking during the launch of Dimension Data Intelligent Security in East Africa, Ishmael Muli, the unit's Head, stated that insider threats are largely attributed to malicious employees and contractors.
Statistics from Dimension Data's Threat Intelligence Centre show that most incidents in the region originate from employee negligence and other close associates ignoring corporate cybersecurity policies, misuse of data, and installation of unauthorized applications among others.
Dimension Data's Intelligent Security unites all the capabilities and security offerings previously managed by its subsidiary brands into one business, offering world-class solutions from global partner NTT Ltd. while developing locally relevant solutions tailored for protecting organizations in East Africa.
“Across East Africa, we are seeing insiders take advantage of organizations that lack visibility or the ability to investigate successful cyberattacks due to limited access controls to detect unusual activity once someone breaches their network,” Muli said.
“Cybersecurity plays a critical role for any business within emerging markets like Kenya. We’ve built Dimension Data Intelligent Security to ensure that we offer world-class solutions to our clients while making sure they suit the unique needs of our clients operating within these markets,” he added.
Current attacks in East Africa are being linked to hackers employing smarter methods to distribute their server networks and occasionally purchasing command and control systems in other countries, with traffic being routed through myriad systems making it difficult to trace its origin.
According to the Communication Authority (CA) Annual Report 2018/2019, malware attacks were the most prevalent threats, accounting for approximately 78% of all cyber threat detections.
Web application attacks and botnet/denial of service threats accounted for approximately 11% and 9% respectively of detected cyber threats.
