An online security company,
conducted research into the evolution of IT threats in 2013 using information
from various security network cloud services. From the results, the cyber
security company found that Middle East, Turkey and Africa experienced around
50% Year-on-Year growth of IT-related security incidents.
In South Africa, the numbers from
the survey indicate that there were at least 3.9-million online threats
detected in 2013, while 36.8% of users were affected by an online threat. In
terms of local threats, 26.2% of South Africans were affected by 17.6-million
local threats.
According to the research, the
picture is slightly better in Nigeria. While 3% of malicious apps and programs
in Africa originate from Nigeria, only 20.3% of users were affected from
3.6-million local threats. In terms of international threats reaching Nigeria,
42.5% of users were affected.
“In Africa in the last year antivirus
products such as ESET Nod32 antivirus neutralized more than 214-million
cyber-crime attacks and infections on user devices compared to 140-million in
2012. According to research, the main sources of threats are still networks and
removable media such as USB drives and DVDs,” explained the experts.
In Kenya, 42% of users were affected
by 2.1-million attacks, but 23.7% of users were saved from infection by ESETproducts as 9.8-million attacks were blocked.
According to online security experts,
the largest problem in Africa is Algeria. “Algeria appears to have the highest
internet-borne incident rate in the region with 21.7-million incidents
affection 39% of users in the country. Algeria also has the highest number of
local incidents with 32.5-million blocked attacks involving 46% of users. But
Sudan holds the highest rate for users affected by local threats at
57.9-million,” experts explained.
Other countries include,
Morocco
Online threat detections:
5.2-million
Users affected: 49.2%
Local threat detections:
22.9-million
Users affected: 31.7%
Libya
Online threat detections: 2.7-million
Users affected: 50.6%
Local threat detections: 6.8-million
Users affected: 37.4%
Egypt
Online threat detections:
5.9-million
Users affected: 51.3%
Local threat detections:
22.6-million
Users affected: 27.2%
Tunisia
Online threat detections: 3.2-million
Users affected: 50%
Local threat detections: 8-million
Users affected: 37.3%
