NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 22 – Improved surveillance helped Kenya detect 4.6 billion cyber threats between April and June this year, new data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows.
This was an improvement from 2.5 billion detected during the January and March period.
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS), which is a form of cyberattack that tries to overwhelm websites or servers with fraudulent internet traffic, grew the biggest with a 255.6 percent increase to 13.1 million in the review period.
Mobile application attacks, web application attacks, malware and system vulnerabilities also expanded by 177.7 percent, 150.8 percent, 93.1 percent and 81.9 percent respectively.
“The general increase in cyber threats is attributable to the upgrade of KE-CIRT tools that resulted in wider cyber surveillance,” CA’s Q4 Sector Statistics Report for the financial year 2024/2025 shows.
“Consequently, total cyber advisories increased by 30.6 percent.”
Increased internet adoption in Kenya has created an opportunity for cybercriminals to target firms, aided by weak internet security systems.
The emergence of artificial intelligence has also made it easier for individuals to exploit social engineering tactics like phishing.
Kenyan firms are also left at the mercy of cybercriminals due to a lack of experts in the sector, making it difficult for companies to hire top talent to prevent such situations.
