- A DDoS attacks aims to overwhelm the devices, services, and network of its intended target with fake internet traffic, rendering them inaccessible to or useless for legitimate users.
- System vulnerabilities, showed marked improvement, with related threats dropping by 45.2 per cent to 583.7 million,
The move by organisations to strengthen their system vulnerabilities saw cyber threat incidents drop by 473.9 million – almost half in three months to September 2024.
The massive declines came following increased advisories by the regulator, which saw total cyber threat events detected by the communications authority stand at 657.8 million from 1.13 billion in the preceding three months.
Communications Authority, its latest quarter one report for 2024/2025, says that the drop represents a 41 per cent reduction, attributed to improved system security measures and increased regulatory advisories.
The Communications Authority of Kenya, through the National KE-CIRT/CC, responded to these threats by issuing 9.6 million advisories during the review period.
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Despite the overall decline in threats, malware remained the dominant challenge, growing by 6.1 per cent to 33.9 million incidents from 31.9 million recorded in the last quarter of the previous financial year.
Brute force attacks showed the sharpest increase, surging by 41 per cent to 38.1 million f
rom 26.9 million in the prior quarter. Similarly, web application attacks rose by 18.6 per cent, reaching 174,251 incidents compared to 146,903 previously.
DDoS Attacks Plummet
System vulnerabilities, however, showed marked improvement, with related threats dropping by 45.2 per cent to 583.7 million, down from over 1 billion in the preceding quarter.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks also saw a significant decline of 75.1 per cent, while mobile application threats rose by 18.5 per cent.
“During the quarter, total cyber threat events detected by the National KE-CIRT/CC stood at 657.8 million. In response to these threats, the National KE-CIRT/CC issued 9.6 million advisories” .
Players in the technology space have been battling cybercriminals who are rapidly deploying AI to execute attacks to extend their social engineering efforts, spread malware, carry out adversarial attacks, and compromise critical information infrastructure and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
The Communications Authority last year revealed that the country lost $83 million (Sh10.74 billion) to cybercrime in 2023.