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Malicious URLs threatening Kenyan and Nigerian Internet users reaches 6.5 million

Malicious URLs threatening Kenyan and Nigerian Internet users reaches 6.5 million

Enterprise Security

While the number of attacks from online resources (known as web threats) blocked by Kaspersky in Kenya and Nigeria combined for the second quarter of 2021 decreased to 14.9 million from the 16.4 million blocked in the first quarter of the year, the number of unique malicious URLs detected and blocked by Kaspersky in these countries increased to reach 6.5 million combined, when compared to the 5.2 million of the previous quarter.

Globally, Kaspersky solutions blocked close to 1.7 billion web threats in the same period this year, an increase of 87% when compared to 2020. Furthermore, its web antivirus solution recognised more than 675 million unique URLS as malicious, a significant jump from the 286 million of last year.

“The IT threat landscape is evolving as more sophisticated technology becomes available. The increase of malicious URLs in Kenya and Nigeria also indicates how phishing and related malware have grown in popularity by threat actors in these regions, who are targeting people working outside of the relative safety of the office network,” said Bethwel Opil, Enterprise Sales Manager, Kaspersky in Africa.

Web threats (attacks launched from online resources) are a category of cybersecurity risks that may cause an undesirable event or action via the Internet. A broad scope of dangers fits into this category, including well-known threats like phishing and computer viruses. However, other threats, like offline data theft, can also be considered part of this group. Web threats are not limited to online activity but ultimately involve the Internet at some stage for inflicted harm.

In fact, more than 30 million web threats were seen across South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria combined between April and June 2021. Kenya accounted for 8,485,345 web threats blocked by Kaspersky and Nigeria 6,506,385 web threats. Significantly, financial threats are cause for concern globally with Kaspersky solutions blocking the launch of at least one piece of banking malware on the computers of 119,252 unique users.

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