Malware News
Mobile Malware Attacks Across Africa are on the Decline – Why It Isn’t a Good Thing
Image sourced from Sectigo. While analysing the threat landscape of African countries, Kaspersky experts saw a steady decline in attacks on mobile devices in the region, as cybercriminals consolidated their efforts to focus on more complicated, dangerous and profitable threats instead. These and other findings are featured in Kaspersky’s Mobile Threats in 2021 report. Overall, in 2021, South African users faced 38% less mobile malware attacks than in 2020, while other countries in the region have seen even more dramatic changes of their mobile threat landscape: Mozambique saw a 48% decrease, followed by Botswana (58%), Nigeria (59%), Ethiopia (69%) and Ghana (76%). The only countries where the share of attacks increased was Angola, where mobile malware actually grew by 12%. “Indeed, there ...
35% of SAns Have Never Used Dating Apps Because They Fear Scammers
Sourced from TechSpot and PC World. According to the findings of a study by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, dating app scammers pose a serious barrier to people wanting to use such services. In particular, 35% of respondents in South Africa are afraid to use them, as they fear being deceived by fraudsters, and 35% generally do not trust people in dating apps. However, only 17% of respondents were targeted by cybercriminals, and 34% who contacted fraudsters managed to avoid an attack. Millions of individuals use online dating applications or social networking sites in order to find a partner. But instead of finding love, many people encounter a con artist attempting to dupe them into giving money. Scammers are drawn to dating services because they know that people on these platforms are looki...
South Africa Sees 42% Increase in Financial Malware in First Half of 2021
Sourced from Tech Advisor A combination of increasingly sophisticated propagation technologies and continued economic uncertainties resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have seen the number of financial malware attacks reported in South Africa during the first half of 2021 increase by more than 10,400 over the comparative period last year, according to Kaspersky research. “Of these attacks, 24% targeted corporate users. This makes financial malware attacks a significant cybersecurity risk facing the local market today across both the consumer and business sectors,” says Bethwel Opil, Enterprise Sales Manager at Kaspersky in Africa. Remote Work Leads to Security Lapses Local organisations have become susceptible to financial malware as more employees work outside the relative safety of the ...
Inside the Mind of Cybercriminals – How Threat Actors Think
Cybercriminals come in many different flavours, but the majority of them are in it for one thing: financial pay-off. They want the money that comes with offering their tools or services, selling stolen data, extortion like ransomware or plain fraud. And they all have one thing in common – your organisation is on their radar. This is why, says Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy and Evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa, it is critical to understand how cyber criminals operate, the tools they use and the approaches they take to embed robust security within the organisation. “With ransomware going rampant and victim organisations paying up to millions of U.S. dollars to the extortionists, this problem is just going to get worse. The U.S. government recently announced that ransomware is a national cybe...
New Malware Steals Facebook Credentials from African Mobile Users
Sourced from Republic Title Anti-fraud firm, Evina has revealed that a certain malware uses javascript to retrieve the login credentials of Facebook users. The company confirms that social media users in Africa are amongst those who have been targeted. This malware launches a browser that loads Facebook at the same time a mobile user is trying to open the platform – by displaying in the foreground, the user believes the fraudulent browser is legitimate. Malware and ransomware that targets hundreds of millions of mobile users worldwide can have devastating personal, productivity and financial consequences. “This new malware is particularly dangerous as it could effectively ruin your online and offline life by making off with the credentials of one of your most valued pieces of digital real ...
