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Online frauds in Kenya rose five times in 2020

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept  15  – The total number of online frauds reported in the country rose more than five times from 51 in 2019 to 270 in 2020 due to what the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics  (KNBS) attributed to increased internet exposure among Kenyans.

The 2021 Economy survey released by the statistics agency noted that the number of cyber-attacks resulting in increased cyber advisories rose by 54.2 percent to 81,727.

Cases of phishing, KNBS noted, “more than tripled from 102 in 2019 to 338 in 2020 while reported online crime rose by 39.7 percent to 139.9 million with malware recording the highest growth of 45.4 percent to 124.2 million in the review period.”

The survey relied on cyber attacks’ advisories issued and online crime reported to the National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team/Coordination Centre (KE-CIRT/CC).

The findings mirror those by cybersecurity company, Kaspersky which noted that two million phishing attacks were recorded in Africa in the first half of 2021 with Kenya accounting for  601 557 cases.

Bethwel Opil, Enterprise Sales Manager at Kaspersky in Africa said that phishing poses a significant threat in  Africa even as he reiterated the importance of ensuring cybersecurity solutions are installed on all connected devices.

Another research by Liquid Intelligent Technologies also revealed that seventy-nine percent of Kenyan, South Africans, and Zimbabwean businesses attributed an increase in cybersecurity threats to the advent of remote working.

Almost 80 percent of organizations that participated in the research noted that Cyber Security threats increased in 2020.

The study further noted that data breaches like data extortion, data leakage, and data disclosure constituted almost 71 percent of the cyber-attacks for Kenyan businesses.

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“Over 70% of South African and Zimbabwean organizations consider email attacks like Phishing the most prominent digital threats,” the report noted.

Security and data protection was listed by 53 percent of the respondents as a major significant challenge in 2021.

In addition to installing relevant cybersecurity solutions, Kaspersky urged individuals to use multiple email addresses, never respond to any spam and always check the link and ensure the links start with https:// and not http://.

“Keep your browser and operating system software up to date with the latest patches., use anti-spam filters in addition to antivirus and Internet security solutions,” the report added.

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