The latest quarterly cybersecurity report by the Communications Authority shows that 2,696,335,021 cyber threat events were detected in three months. KENYA recorded nearly 2.7 billion cyber threat events between July and September, with attacks targeting web applications rising 57.62 per cent, exposing growing vulnerabilities in government systems, financial services and businesses.
The latest quarterly cybersecurity report by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows that 2,696,335,021 cyber threat events were detected during the three months, representing a 14.45 per cent increase from the April-June period. The surge comes as criminals increasingly exploit outdated software, weak passwords, vulnerable online platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) to scale up attacks, raising concerns about the security of digital transactions, sensitive customer information and essential public services.
Web application attacks increased to 27.4 million, while malware threats rose 20.01 per cent to 70.8 million, signalling mounting pressure on organisations that depend on digital platforms to deliver services and conduct business. Brute-force attacks, in which criminals repeatedly attempt to guess passwords or gain access to accounts, jumped 85.41 per cent to nearly 45 million during the quarter.
System attacks remained the largest category, accounting for approximately 2.55 billion detected events. In his assessment of the threat landscape, CA director-general David Mugonyi warned that organisations faced increasingly sophisticated attacks, including ransomware, distributed denial-of-service attacks, phishing and the exploitation of system vulnerabilities.
“Further, the exploitation of system vulnerabilities by threat actors continued to pose considerable threats to the delivery of critical services and the continuity of business operations,” Mugonyi said in the report. He said the developments highlighted the need to strengthen cyber hygiene, improve proactive threat detection and undertake continuous cybersecurity awareness and capacity-building programmes.
The figures underscore the risks facing Kenya as government agencies, banks, telecommunications companies and businesses expand their reliance on online systems. A successful breach could expose customer information, disrupt service delivery, undermine consumer confidence and impose additional costs on businesses forced to restore compromised systems.