As 2022 saw a rise in attacks, don’t expect 2023 to slow down. It will be much of the same but with the rising use of technology by the population at large, expect the following:

Increase in ransomware and phishing attacks:
Ransomware and phishing attacks are easy techniques for cyber criminals. Many African employees are not trained well enough to identify these attacks and so this will continue to affect Africa for at least the short foreseeable future.

Increase in mobile threats: The increasing use of mobile devices in Africa has led to the emergence of new mobile threats, such as malware and adware that can compromise the security of a device. As Africa’s network distribution continues to grow, so will the mobile device population and so will mobile device cyberattacks.

Increase in Cryptojacking: Cryptojacking, in which hackers use a victim’s computer to mine cryptocurrency, has also emerged as a significant threat in Africa.

Businesses employ technology partners: Cyberattacks are growing in numbers and continue to evolve in technique and complexity. As big organisations look to become more lean and startups and other businesses adopt cloud, more and more African businesses will realise the benefits of partnering with security experts to secure their operations, rather than trying to do it in-house. This is due to the failures that we have seen in 2022 when businesses hire cheaper or less experienced engineers due to the scarcity of this profession, and end up with a half-baked solution that leaves them vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Emergence of new threats: And of course, as technology advances, new cyber threats will emerge that are specifically designed to target African countries. If businesses are relying on inhouse engineers, they need to ensure that they remain up-to-date with best practice and OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) top 10.

More focus on data compliance from Governments, as data laws become stricter: Although Africa has been on the back foot with data laws, with South Africa only implementing POPIA in 2021 and Egypt having implemented theirs in 2020, more African countries will start to focus on data sovereignty and data compliance regulations. This means businesses need to ensure their technology partners are upto date with African laws to avoid large fines and penalties.

Source : https://deimos.io/post/2023-cybersecurity-trends-for-african-businesses