Opportunities in Africa

Global Cyber Threats and Investment Opportunities in Africa

According to CheckPoint, 2021 recorded a record number of cyber attacks, with a 50 per cent increase in overall attacks per week on corporate networks compared to the previous year.

Globally, it disclosed that 2021 recorded a record-breaking number of cyber attacks, with a 50 per cent increase in overall attacks per week on corporate networks compared to the year before.

The sectors with the highest volumes of attacks were Education/Research, with an average of 1,468 attacks per organisation each week (an increase of 60 per cent from 2020), followed by Government/Military with 1,082 (40 per cent increase) and Healthcare with 752 (55 percent increase).

Across Africa, organisations in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and other parts of the continent recorded the highest volume of cyber attacks in 2021, with an average of 1,615 weekly breaches, a 15 per cent increase from 2020, according to CheckPoint Software Technologies.

According to the cybersecurity solutions provider, Africa was the highest, followed closely by the Asia-Pacific region, with an average of 1,299 weekly attacks per organisation.

In Nigeria specifically, about 71 percent of Nigerian organisations were hit by ransomware in 2021, which is 22 percent higher than the figure recorded in 2020. This is according to the cybersecurity firm Sophos.

A few days ago, a ransomware gang known as RansomHouse, claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on Shoprite, Africa’s biggest retailer.

The cyberattack resulted in a data breach of about 600 gigabytes of Shoprite’s customer data in Eswatini, Namibia, and Zambia and it included names and ID numbers but, thankfully no financial information or bank account numbers.

Meanwhile, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2022 released in January this year, the increase in cyber threats is among the greatest global risks. The study, which also aims to help leaders to create effective policies that will guard against and manage risks, points to cybersecurity as one of the main areas with a growing and existential threat to organisations.

It also predicts that the global economic recovery will be volatile and uneven over the next three years.

Part of the study, which points to attacks such as Log4j and the SolarWinds Orion attacks as particular threats, states that:

“In December 2021, just one week after discovering a critical security flaw in a widely used software library (Log4j),

more than 100 attempts at exploiting the vulnerability were detected every minute, illustrating how free access coding can spread vulnerabilities widely.

“Information technology (IT) monitoring and management software also illustrate the potential for contagious exposure, which can break through the defences of critical cybersecurity supply chains, as shown by the Solar Winds Orion attack that occurred in late 2020.”

All this data establishes the fact that coordinated cyberattacks are now on the rise. With this, companies, governmental agencies, and parastatals need to be all out to ensure that their infrastructure is not compromised.

The digital future

With an estimated 2.5 quintillion bytes of data being created and shared every day, hackers now have more access to sensitive data than ever before, and the opportunities are further increased as the world becomes more digital. It is reported that, as at the end of 2021, there were 14.6 billion connected devices. That number is also expected to grow by nearly 18% in 2022 and more than double by 2027.

Popular types of attacks

There are basically two major areas of attack that have been quite popular among attackers. These are ransomware (where attackers steal and encrypt an organisation’s data and then require payment to restore access) and data breaches (leaks).

Others are IoT attacks, cloud attacks, phishing attacks, blockchain and cryptocurrency attacks, software vulnerabilities, and machine learning and AI attacks.

The Opportunity

With the grim picture painted above, industry professionals, however, score the continent’s preparedness in combating cyberattacks low.

The Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) June 2021 report by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) which examines the cybersecurity landscape in 194 countries globally, suggests that Africa’s levels of commitment to cybersecurity and capacity to respond to threats remain low when compared to other countries. This, right here, signals an abundance of opportunity in this sector for professionals who are specialised in this area of information technology.

This is a goldmine of opportunity, especially for cybersecurity experts who can leverage this current need to provide such services to private organisations and government parastatals.

Areas as basic as the provision of privacy tools such as Virtual Private Networks (VPN). Or other detailed and focused areas such as the provision of enhanced data management services,

network perimeter and end-point level security, application, email, and web security provisions require skilled hands.

This is also a challenge to indigenous IT firms to create home-grown solutions that will address the security needs in the IT sector.

What’s more, young professionals can also tap into this opportunity by actively putting their skills to the test and becoming white hat hackers. These individuals take it upon themselves to debug programmes and report vulnerabilities and loopholes to the appropriate channels to ensure a wholesome, well-secured network for institutions across the continent.

ORIFUNKE LAWAL

She is a visionary and pioneer by nature who seeks opportunities to create systems that help people grow effectively with supervision and accountability.

In 2018, she founded Lady with Balls, one of the biggest, fastest-growing and people-focused communities of ladies currently based in Nigeria.

At the moment, she runs the Orifunke Lawal Academy where she organizes certification courses and programs to help business owners and personal brands gain more visibility, build more authority and make more money. The academy currently runs two programs; The Canva Growth Program and the Content Creation and Marketing Course.

EMMANUEL FAITH

He is a versatile Human resource professional with hands-on cross-sectoral experiences and core competencies that cut across Talent Acquisition, Performance Management, Workforce Planning and Strategy, Workforce analysis, Employee experience and other related HR skills.

In alignment with his goal of building human capacity, he runs a series: “A word a day” geared towards improving the diction of millennials and currently reaches over 10,000 viewers on his social media platforms. He is also the initiator of Bookathon, a group with over 200 members committed to reading at least 5 books per month, enhancing their personal development, having read 200+books in the last two years.

OYINLOLA AKINDELE

Over the past years, she has driven measurable results across different Digital Marketing roles and platforms. She is an online Marketing Specialist who provides global solutions to small and medium scale businesses across Africa on marketing platform with increased returns across board.

She has worked with hundreds of businesses on different campaign strategies to achieve different results, with budget allocation and management in place.

ABOVE & BEYOND

SALEM KING

Salem King is a storytelling genius, a social media entrepreneur and a teacher. He is the founder of The Booster Academy. He is currently on a mission to help creators monetize content and community.