Some South and East African countries are among the worst places affected by cyber threats between October and the first half of December in the run-up to the festive season, a surveillance report by Dutch cybersecurity firm Surfshark has revealed.
Surfshark explained that the surge of attacks on online shoppers particularly in South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda was occasioned by “Black Friday”, Christmas offers, and New Year offers.
“People searching for gifts and deals online during the period of huge discounts are more likely to click on suspicious links, download malicious files, and infect their devices,” said Nedas Kazlauskas, Surfshark’s Antivirus product owner.
According to Surfshark’s report, South Africa is in the lead of most affected countries by cyber threats, cybercrimes, payment fraud, and shopping scams in the Africa continent, followed by Kenya and Uganda, respectively.
South Africa recorded an average of nine threats per 100 scans conducted by Surfshark cybersecurity team, ranking 44th in the world.
Meanwhile, Kenya ranked 51st globally, but took the second place in the African list with 7.2 threats per 100 scans, while Uganda recorded 3 cyber threats per 100 scans, ranking 59th.
In late November, Uganda's police warned the public about cyber-fraudsters and conmen ahead of the Christmas season, urging those who had fallen victim to online fraud to file a report. The warning comes amid a series of media reports in other African countries about the rampant activity of cybercriminals.