[Kenya] Remote working spurs innovation in cybersecurity

The growing demand for these cloud and remote services spurred further investment in research and design that added multiple layers of proprietary technology to ESET Protect and ESET Inspect Cloud the organizations flagship offerings. The investments will help I.T experts quickly manage security risks in their environments in-house and remotely. The ESET Inspect Cloud is a sophisticated cloud-based tool, which enables the ESET Protect platform to evolve into an Extended Detection and Response solution. This helps cover devices remotely and is proactive in advanced threat hunting, incident response, full network visibility, cloud-based threat defence, and more. It further identifies post-execution malicious code, while giving the user full visibility of the response through an easy to navigate dashboard. 

The ESET Protect product suite will now offer LiveGuard Advanced, a threat defence solution with cloud sandboxing included within one of its layers that analyses suspicious files submitted by endpoints for new or previously unseen threats. It will also include the new Brute-Force Attack Protection module for ESET Endpoint Security products for Windows. Combining reputation data from the cloud with password-guessing and honeypot systems, ESET’s Brute-Force Attack Protection module blocks repetitive infiltration attempts. It also regulates employees’ access to websites from their Android mobile devices. Using built-in categories and custom rules, admins can blacklist, whitelist, or warn about URLs that lead to sites with harmful content. 

With the work from home initiatives opening several points of vulnerability for systems ESET E.A has seen a rise in both known and never-before-seen threats. These new and revamped products will provide the digital security that keep an organization’s systems working smoothly and securely no matter the location. The attacks also detailed in the ESET T1 Report have been categorized as – Downloader, Email, Cryptocurrency, Ransomware and Phishing Web threats that have seen perpetrators cripple power stations, steal several thousand dollars and loss of critical personal and organizational data.  

Speaking at the rollout of the new solutions in Nairobi, Karen Cherry ESET E.A CEO stated that "Kenya is a hub in Africa and the growth and access of I.T over the last few years has brought with it blessings and challenges in equal measure”. She added that “the upsurge in online shopping, crypto currency purchase and digital humanitarian campaigns in the country are all prone to exploitation as we have witnessed several high-profile cryptocurrency platform hacks while phishing and scam websites exploited interests in topical issues such as the Russia-Ukraine war where scammers started to take advantage of people trying to support Ukraine, using fictitious charities and fundraisers as lures”.  

ESET E.A Country Director Ken Kimani added that “several local organizations have adopted I.T as the key pillar for their growth and operation and without proper measures, these systems are left vulnerable to attacks that can bring them to a halt”. He added that “the recent Presidential directive to the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of ICT to come up with ways of further strengthening the capacity of the cybercrime investigators is a wakeup call to organizations to ensure their online presence is secure. With the increase in work and study from home, online shopping, gaming and the upcoming elections, the potential for a further upsurge in online attacks is eminent for individuals and organizations alike and thus a need to adopt a proactive defence mechanism against these threats”.   

ESET E.A has seen a resurgence of Emotet – the infamous malware, spread primarily through spam emails and a sophisticated and extremely dangerous malware, known as Industroyer. The Industroyer is designed to disrupt critical industrial processes such as electric power systems and could also be refitted to target other types of critical infrastructure.

www.eset.com