This archive report was first published on 5 September 2019.
Published on September 5, 2019, a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has revealed that Kenyans are the least concerned about internet security globally.
According to the report, only 44% of internet users in Kenya are concerned about their online privacy, which is the lowest level in the world. This is a stark contrast to the global average of 80% of users who are concerned about their online security.
The report, which was based on a survey of 25,229 internet users in 25 countries, including Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt, found that social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter were the second biggest sources of distrust of the internet, after cyber criminals.
“While there appears to be increasing concerns about data privacy and online security around the world, there is somewhat a ‘data privacy paradox’, as users continue to give away personal data and thus their privacy in exchange for different services,” says the UNCTAD Digital Economy report.
Kenya does not have a data protection law, which has made citizens suspicious of the State’s data collection efforts, such as the recent biometric registration and national census.
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has reported that Kenyan firms were hit by about 11.2 million cyber threats between January and March this year, a 10.1 percent rise compared with a year earlier.
Cyber security attacks are estimated to have cost Kenya’s economy about Sh29.5 billion in 2018, a 39.15 percent jump from Sh21.2 billion in 2017, according to a tech consultancy firm, Serianu.
