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Cybersecurity corporation released a statement which listed Nigeria as one of the three countries in Africa targeted by Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups.
The number of malware classes and types that threaten cybersecurity in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa declined in H1 2020 according to research. However, hackers-for-hire or cybercriminals have also risen in the first two quarters of the year.
The COVID-19 situation is offering the groups a means to acquire delicate information from Nigeria and other African countries. Kaspersky says that there is a possibility that hack-for-hire groups would target countries in Africa in the future.
The APT groups also upgrade their methods and mechanism which advances the theft of sensitive information globally according to Kaspersky research. The evolving techniques of the APT groups do not exempt Africa from cyber attacks Kaspersky says.
APT groups threaten cyber security in Nigeria – Kaspersky
These groups deliver malware with new unconventional and sophisticated techniques Kaspersky added. The most recent and popularly used malware by cybercriminals is the STOP ransomware.
Data analysis of institutions like banks by these groups, for example, could reveal its market exposure, clients, and back-end systems. The information could serve several purposes.
Cybercriminals could monetise stolen data and use it to provide insights and share value that are disadvantageous to an institution. Their novel techniques for data monetization is also giving certain financial malware classes, popularity in Nigeria and South Africa.
Kaspersky advises that cyber threat is covering new territories and no institution – also in Nigeria is deemed safe. Government, healthcare, and military are the top sectors which the groups targeted in Sub-Saharan Africa in H1 2020.
“We also anticipate that cybercriminals will increase targeted ransomware deployment using different ways,” the statement said. These can range from trojanised cracked software to exploitation across the supply chain of the targeted industry.
Data breaches will certainly become more commonplace especially as people will continue to work remotely for the foreseeable future while exposing their systems to the Internet without adequate protection.”
For the rest of 2020 APT groups and hacking-for-hire threat actors will most likely increase in prominence across the globe Kaspersky analyst Maher Yamout said.
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