Kaspersky, a Russian multinational cybersecurity and anti-virus provider has revealed that it blocked 14 071 malware attacks in Nigeria in the last six moths, while Kenya (10 697), and South Africa (5 499) have malware attacks in same period.
This brings to a total of than 30 000 mobile malware attacks combined in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa out of the more than 206 000 mobile malware attacks blocked by Kaspersky solutions for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) region in just 6-months.
Revealing this in its latest research, Kaspersky said Nigeria only trails Egypt (19 466) by the number of attacks blocked for African countries monitored. This, according to Kaspersky points to how prevalent mobile threats have become in this highly connected country.
“When looking at the top ten countries by share of users attacked by mobile malware Nigeria places eighth (at 11.76%). Even though Kenya and South Africa might not feature as prominently, the mobile malware threat is still a concern, along with the shift to more targeted based attacks these countries are seeing,” said Bethwel Opil, Enterprise Sales Manager at Kaspersky in Africa.
He added that mobile malware remains a significant threat for corporate and personal users across Africa, explaining that these attacks are usually very diverse with hackers leveraging a range of methodologies and technologies to compromise victim’s devices. “Trojan-Downloaders and Trojan-Droppers are especially dangerous given their potential to contain significantly damaging payloads,” he said.
The top three most prevalent malware behaviours that Kaspersky has seen in Nigeria and Kenya are Trojans, Trojan-Downloaders; and Trojan-Droppers. In South Africa, these are Trojans, Trojan-Proxy; and Trojan-Downloaders.
A Trojan is a type of malware that is often disguised as legitimate software which attackers can use to try and gain access to user systems. As the name suggests, Trojan-Downloaders download and install new versions of malicious programmes, including Trojans and Adware on victim computers. Meanwhile, Trojan-Droppers usually save a range of files containing malicious programmes to the victim’s drive. Once installed, a Trojan-Proxy allows an attacker to use the infected device as a proxy to connect to the Internet.
A way out of the situation, Kaspersky recommends that in addition to installing cybersecurity solutions like Kaspersky Total Security on mobile devices, mobile users can enhance their security by creating a strong password, stressing that by putting a strong password on their smartphone, the device can become unusable if it is lost or stolen and the password attempt fails a certain number of times.
Other measures are:
- Do not trust SMS. Mobile malware uses text messages, so users should never respond to requests for credit card details or other private information.
- Check your browser for the lock symbol. The lock icon in the address bar indicates that the sight is secure when entering personal data.