daniel chigunwe
Cyber threats in Africa pose severe problems that require quick attention and coordinated action. As the continent enters the digital era, it must strengthen its defenses against emerging cyber threats. However, a new report shows that compared to other regions Africa suffers the least at the hands of cyber criminals.
The X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2024 noted that the biggest cyber threat faced in 2023 was identity theft. The report was done by IBM X-Force, a threat-centric team of hackers, responders, researchers, and analysts.
“The biggest shift the IBM X-Force team observed in 2023 was a pronounced surge in cyber threats targeting identities. Attackers have a historical inclination to choose the path of least resistance in pursuit of their objectives,” the report states.
“In this era, the focus has shifted towards logging in rather than hacking in, highlighting the relative ease of acquiring credentials compared to exploiting vulnerabilities or executing phishing campaigns. Lack of identity protections was corroborated by IBM X-Force penetration testing data for 2023, which ranked identification and authentication failures as the second most common finding,” it adds.
Additionally, 2023 saw the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (gen AI). This forced the world to review how it defines and responds to cyber threats.
“Policymakers, business executives, and cybersecurity professionals are all feeling the pressure to adopt AI within their operations. And the rush to adopt gen AI is currently outpacing the industry’s ability to understand the security risks these new capabilities will introduce,” the report states.
However, this threat would only become alarming when the use of AI reaches critical mass. As it relates to regions more susceptible to cyber attacks in 2023, the Middle East and Africa ranked the lowest. Europe ranked the highest at 32 percent of incidents X-Force responded followed by North America at 26 percent, Asia-Pacific had 23 percent and Latin America came in at 12 percent. – Business Insider Africa
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