Hackers Targeted Financial systems of a Third of Corporate firms in Last Six Months- Report

A third of corporate organisations in Kenya faced attempted hacking in the last six months. A report from cybersecurity company, Kaspersky, shows that the hackers mostly targeted the firms’ financial systems.

According to the report, corporate organizations attracted 29.3 percent of the financial malware attacks (2,332 threats) This is attributed to vulnerabilities in corporate systems due to an increase in remote working.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, most corporate organisations have adopted remote working policies to curb the spread of the Coronavirus. Kenya reported more cases of hacking attempts in Q1 2020 compared to 7,962 financial malware attacks in the first half of this year.

“As local businesses have continued to adjust to remote work scenarios and the rest of the circumstances surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, we have continued to witness cybercriminals using this to their advantage, exploiting the situation however they can,” enterprise sales manager at Kaspersky Bethwel Opil said.

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“When looking at such statistics, we believe it is evident that cybercriminals are more commonly targeting unsuspecting corporate users in Kenya as a way to compromise corporate systems.”

Financial malware target sensitive financial information leading to the loss of money. The high uptake of tech in business structures has also given rise to hacking attempts.

Rwanda recently jailed twelve people, among them eight Kenyans who were found guilty of attempting to hack into Equity bank’s systems. Some of the convicted hackers are believed to be members of the infamous forkbombo group that has agonized Kenyan firms through hacking.

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