Africa may just have the lowest level of cyber threats compared to other regions

Africa's Cyber Resilience: Lowest Cyber Attack Incidents Globally.
Identity Theft Surges: Key Cyber Threat in African Region.
Insights into Africa's Cybersecurity Challenges.

The X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2024 noted that the biggest cyber threat faced in 2023 was identity theft. The report was done by IBM X-Force, a threat-centric team of hackers, responders, researchers, and analysts.

“The biggest shift the IBM® X-Force® team observed in 2023 was a pronounced surge in cyber threats targeting identities. Attackers have a historical inclination to choose the path of least resistance in pursuit of their objectives,” the report states.

“In this era, the focus has shifted towards logging in rather than hacking in, highlighting the relative ease of acquiring credentials compared to exploiting vulnerabilities or executing phishing campaigns. Lack of identity protections was corroborated by IBM X-Force penetration testing data for 2023, which ranked identification and authentication failures as the second most common finding,” it adds.

DON’T MISS THIS: Top 10 African countries most vulnerable to cyber threats

Additionally, 2023 saw the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (gen AI). This forced the world to review how it defines and responds to cyber threats.

“Policymakers, business executives, and cybersecurity professionals are all feeling the pressure to adopt AI within their operations. And the rush to adopt gen AI is currently outpacing the industry’s ability to understand the security risks these new capabilities will introduce,” the report states.

However, this threat would only become alarming when the use of AI reaches critical mass.

As it relates to regions more susceptible to cyber attacks in 2023, the Middle East and Africa ranked the lowest. Europe ranked the highest at 32% of incidents X-Force responded followed by North America at 26%, Asia-Pacific had 23% and Latin America came in at 12%.

Africa may just have the lowest level of cyber threats compared to other regions IBM X-Force

The Middle East and Africa are categorized as one region, consisting of the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, and Iraq, and the entire African continent accounted for only 7% of incidents X-Force responded.

In the Middle East and Africa area, genuine local accounts (52%), as well as cloud accounts (48%), were the primary vectors of infection, with espionage having the most impact.

Additionally, the most affected industry in the Middle East and Africa was the finance and insurance industry.