Cyberthreat cases increased 7 times in Kenya during the second week of December
A recently released study using aggregated data from Surfshark Antivirus shows that every 50th scan finds at least one threat.
Surfshark Antivirus reported a rise of 572% in cyber threats in Kenya in mid-December. Kenya had a threat rate of 16 threats per 100 scan cycles with the most common threats being riskware and SPR.
“The holiday shopping season leading up to Christmas was not only beneficial for the retailers but cybercriminals too,” - said Nedas Kazlauskas, Antivirus Product Owner at Surfshark. “People searching for gifts and deals online during the period of huge discounts are more likely to click on suspicious links, download malicious files, and infect their devices."
Kenya experienced a 572% threat rate increase during the second week of December. The five countries that suffered the highest threat rate spikes during this time (week-over-week) were Italy (166%), Indonesia (187%), U.A.E. (1173%), Romania (430%), and Kenya (572%).
Europe has been the most affected region over the last couple of months
Aggregated monthly data from Surfshark Antivirus shows that Kenya is the 2nd country by threat rate in Africa since the start of the monitoring period a month to Black Friday up to mid-December. On average, 4 threats are found per 100 scans in Africa. It is 74% less than the global average. Globally, Europe is the most affected region by cyber threats (24% more than the global average).
Most common cyber threats since mid-October 2022
The most common threat types identified and flagged during Surfsharks’ Antivirus scans are riskware (45.4% of all threats), heuristic 13.2%), and trojan (8.7%). Since October 17th, the latest weekly global scans show that, on average, 10 RISKWARE threats were found per 100 scans. Some malware (viruses, trojans, worms, etc.) tend to multiply once they’ve infiltrated and infected a device and could cause damage to files, personal data, and operating software. The most likely malware type to be found in bundles is VIRUS. 31% of scans that detect viruses will detect more than 50 of them.
Two of the most common cyber threat categories are malware and riskware. Riskware is a program made without malicious intent but has security vulnerabilities that give it the potential to become malware. Malware is any software, product, or program created or installed onto a computer to cause harm.
Hackers use malware to corrupt or delete files, steal money and personal data, copy passwords, or take control of specific programs. The most common ways for malware to be installed are phishing emails, corrupt attachments, suspicious downloads, unfamiliar links, and malicious websites. Malware comes in various types, such as viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, adware, bots, and more.
