Government and military organisations were largely at the receiving end of cyber attacks over the past six months, reveals a new report.
Check Point’s Threat Report predicts cyber attacks are likely to escalate in SA in the run-up to the elections.
Check Point says most of the attacks target government and military organisations, which receive over double the average amount of weekly attacks. He notes that by calculating the ratio of the total number of reported attacks to the total number of organisational networks, Check Point derives an average figure that represents the weekly attack rate per organisation.According to the report, FakeUpdates is the top malware in SA, although botnets and Trojans are also wreaking havoc.
“By initially gaining a foothold through seemingly benign update notifications, it paves the way for the deployment of a variety of additional malware threats. These can range from banking trojans like Dridex, to ransomware like DoppelPaymer and data stealers like AZORult, each capable of causing significant damage to individuals and organisations.”
Check Point adds that 80% of the malicious files in SA were delivered via web in the last 30 days. The most common vulnerability exploit type in SA is information disclosure, impacting 65% of organisations.Check Point is seeing increasing manipulation by nation states to influence the outcome of a country’s elections. This is a particular concern for SA, as general elections will be held on 29 May to elect a new National Assembly, as well as the provincial legislature in each province.
“However, it’s important to understand that the underlying threat environment does not necessarily become ‘better’ post-elections. In fact, the landscape of cyber threats is ever-evolving, driven by the continuous advancement in technology and the increasing sophistication of cyber criminals.” The Information Regulator, this week, told ITWeb that as of January 2024, it had received 224 security compromise notifications.
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