According to Microsoft’s recently released 2024 Digital Defense Report, the information technology, education, and research sectors are the most vulnerable to cyberattacks in 2024. The report highlights a troubling increase in global attacks, revealing that the number of cyberattacks has doubled to 600 million per day. Additionally, data breaches have surged, with over a billion records reported stolen so far this year.
These breaches not only compromise personal information but also empower criminals to profit from their activities. The report states, “In 2024, education and research became the second most targeted sector by nation-state threat actors.”
It adds that these institutions often serve as testing grounds for attackers before they target more significant objectives, given their intelligence capabilities and the sensitive nature of their research and policy discussions.
Other sectors identified as particularly susceptible to attacks include think tanks, NGOs, transportation, consumer retail, finance, manufacturing, and communications. This report follows closely after the Communications Authority of Kenya’s Sector Statistics Report, which indicates that similar sectors are also the most targeted in Kenya.
The CA report notes a significant rise in attacks against Kenyan firms, highlighting the increasing risks within the country’s cybersecurity landscape. It attributes this surge to vulnerabilities in systems, which jumped from 871.2 million to 1.2 billion during the second quarter of the year.
Furthermore, the report reveals that the total cyber threats detected rose by 16.5%, increasing from 971.4 million in the previous quarter to 1.1 billion in the current quarter. However, it also indicates a decline in malware, brute force attacks, web application, and mobile application attacks during the same period.
Malware threats reduced from 33.2 million at the end of March 2024 to 31.9 million in June 2024.Brute force attacks also declined, from 28 million to 26.9 million in the same period, while other detected online risks, including distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, dropped from 38.64 million recorded from January to March 2024 to 7.33 million in June.
Additionally, web application attacks reduced from 199,435 to 146,903 during the review period.
The report further noted a surge in the number of total cyber advisories issued by the CA, which grew to 9.35 million, up from 8.52 million in the review period.
In Africa, the African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2024 by Interpol highlights the rapid growth of cybercrime, with estimates showing that in 2023, there was a 23 per cent year-on-year increase in the average number of weekly cyberattacks per organization in Africa, the highest average in the world.
Recent cyber threats have markedly increased in sophistication and frequency, posing significant challenges to cybersecurity defences worldwide.
A notable trend is the surge in mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), and operational technology (OT) cyberattacks, which underscores the expanding threat landscape beyond traditional computing environments.
