Industrial computers under attack in African economies
by SAVIOUS KWINIKA
JOHANNESBURG – CYBER crime is escalating in Sub-Saharan Africa’s main economies.
According to Kaspersky, every third industrial computer was under attack in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria in the first half of 2022.
In the first half of 2022 in the African regions, computers in the industrial control systems (ICS) environment were attacked using multiple means – malicious objects, phishing pages, and spyware.
ICS computers are used in oil and gas, energy, automotive manufacturing, building automation infrastructures and other spheres to perform a range of functions.
In the first half of 2022 in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) region, ICS computers in the oil and gas sector faced attacks most often (47 percent of them got attacked).
Attacks on building automation systems were in the second place – 45 percent of ICS computers in this sector were targeted.
The energy sector was also among the top-three environments that got attacked (41 percent computers there were affected).
In total, over the last six months various types of malicious objects were blocked on every third ICS computer in South Africa (33 percent, 11 percent increase from the second half of 2021), and on 36 percent of computers in Kenya (20 percent increase from the second half of 2021).
In Senegal there were 41 percent of ICS computers on which malicious objects were blocked, in Nigeria – 34 percent, in Gabon – 38 percent.
“Sophisticated attacks have increased the demand for better visibility of the cyber-risks that impact industrial control systems,” said Emad Haffar, Head of Technical Experts at Kaspersky.
Kaspersky is a global cyber security and digital privacy company founded in 1997.
– CAJ News
