With a visit to the United States and his country's designation by the US as a major non-NATO ally, Kenyan President William S. Ruto plans to accelerate the African nation's technological progress, with boosting the training of cybersecurity specialists and hardening defenses against cyberattacks among the priorities.
During May 23 meetings with President Biden, President Ruto committed to the Framework for Responsible State Behavior in Cyberspace ā an existing agreement between European, North American, and Asian countries ā to follow specific norms in cyberspace. The US and Kenya's leaders also agreed to share threat information between partners in the East Africa region and highlighted private industry collaborations, including a joint effort between the Kenyan government and Google to establish a cyber-operations platform along with an e-government pilot project. The US also committed to providing policy and regulatory advisory services.
"The United States and Kenya seek to work together to uplift the Kenyan model for digital transformation in Africa, especially through its dynamic digital ecosystem known as the 'Silicon Savannah,'" the leadersĀ said in a joint statement. "We recognize cybersecurity is the foundation for a secure and resilient digital ecosystem." [read moreā¦]
Africa has had the most exponential growth in phishing-related cybercrime out of any region over the past few years, especially when aimed against small and midsize businesses.
That's according to KnowBe4's "2024 Phishing by Industry Benchmarking Report," out this week, which analyzed more than 54 million simulated phishing tests across 11.9 million users in 19 industries across the globe. The researchers found that inadequate user training was the primary reason why individuals across all industries fell victim to social engineering attacks.
KnowBe4 researchers measure organizations'Ā vulnerability to phishing attemptsin terms of the phish-prone percentage (PPP) ā that is, the percentage of individuals in these businesses that are most likely to put the business at risk by clicking on malicious links or unknowingly opening documents or files containing malware. The findings show that Africa's baseline PPP jumped from 32.8% to 36.7% in one year. In other words, more than one in three individuals in a company will fall forĀ phishing schemes. [read moreā¦]
As African businesses and leaders aim to deeply understand both the opportunities and threats that AI presents the continent, the emerging technology is only at the infancy stage. Dr Williams and Jania are at the forefront of the adoption and usage lifecycle and share their perspectives on the second trend in the Deloitte Tech Trends 2024 report, āGenie out of the bottle: Generative AI as growth catalystā.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is top of mind for leaders and has become a real buzz term in conversations now, regardless that AI has been around for years. When the topic comes up, it is usually followed by statements such as, āAI is going to replace my jobā, or āAI is going to take over the worldā.
In Africa, we are witnessing the great conundrum, ābalancing the excitement of business and governments with the harsh reality that the adoption and implementation of Generative AI (Gen AI) requires hefty investmentā. This is especially important when considering that Africa faces some of the most significant socio-economic-political challenges, and this is where investment is being allocated. Understandably. [read moreā¦]
TheĀ U.S. Department of JusticeĀ (DOJ) said they arrested the alleged operator ofĀ 911 S5, a ten-year-old online anonymity service that was powered by what the director of the FBI called ālikely the worldās largest botnet ever.ā The arrest coincided with the seizure of the 911 S5 website and supporting infrastructure, which the government says turned computers running various āfree VPNā products into Internet traffic relays that facilitated billions of dollars in online fraud and cybercrime. [read moreā¦]