Checkpoint Software – 2024 Cyber Security Report

Cyber Attacks in Africa are significantly on the increase according to Check Point Technologies latest Cyber Security 2024 Report.

The major impact is being felt in the Government and Military sectors in South Africa, Kenya and Morocco while the Financial Institutions in Nigeria are the main target. Nigerian and Kenyan educational organisations are also at the top end of targets for cyber-attacks.

Yesterday Check Point Software revealed its latest report which reveals the depth of the Cyber Crime issue on the continent as being a significant and growing concern that is costing Africa around 1% of its total combined GDP.

Massive surge in Cyber Attacks in Africa

“The rapid digitalization of Africa’s key sectors has positioned the continent as a prime target for sophisticated cyber threats,” stated Lionel Dartnall, Acting Country Manager for South Africa at Check Point Software Technologies. “Organizations must urgently implement robust security strategies to prevent data breaches, ransomware, and compliance drift”.

Dartnall highlights the scale of attacks currently amongst their own client networks, that consist of over 150 000 networks with millions of devices, where they recently prevented 14 million cyber-attacks in a single day. This, he says was prevented by an extensive protocol and utilises 50 AI scanning engines within its security framework.

Key Insights from the Report:

• South Africa: With 3,312 attacks per week on government entities and a 90% surge in ransomware, cybercrime costs the country close to 1 percent of its GDP.
• Kenya: Kenya experiences 4,719 attacks per week on the government sector, reflecting an urgent need for strengthened defences. The cybersecurity sector is growing by 20-25% annually, fuelled by investments in infrastructure and AI-driven solutions.
• Nigeria: Nigeria faces 4,718 attacks per week, among the highest in Africa. In a recent incident, a banking Trojan attack compromised 100,000 customer accounts and resulted in $3 million in losses.
• Morocco: With 8,733 attacks per week on government organizations, Morocco is one of the most targeted nations in Africa. The government recently faced a state-sponsored cyberattack that compromised classified communications, raising significant national security concerns.

There are over 3000 attacks on average, per week, on every organisation in Africa, compared with a global average of 1800 per week, with the newly appointed Regional Director for Africa, Lorna Hardie commenting that “it really talks to the vulnerability of our region and how critical it is that we have to be more respectful of the cases”.

Factors influencing the rapid growth of Cyber Attacks are:

• The rapidly expanding digital footprint in Africa with many previously manual operations being digitised
• Cloud computing adoption gaining momentum with a large uptake on cloud-specific attacks
• Lack of comprehensive cybersecurity implementations across the continent.
• Massive cyber security skill shortage across Africa with only 20 000 qualified cyber security engineers that serve a population of over 1,4 billion people and millions of networks.
• Ai automation of attacks is increasing the volume and frequency of attacks
• End user people problems that create the most vulnerability to networks

Comprehensive Cybersecurity solutions Required

The sophistication of attacks is equally presenting a greater challenge with Automated Bot Networks, Ransomware all being made more advanced in the ways they actually communicate by using things like domain generated algorithms to communicate back to modern control fields.

These mechanisms are very difficult to track and prevent using traditional firewall mechanisms requiring a holistic comprehensive cybersecurity solution.