Explore the rising threat of cybercrime in Africa, the impact on SMEs, and actionable strategies for resilience in a digital era.
Global forecasts show that cybercrime damage will rise from $3 trillion in 2015 to over $10 trillion in 2025, a 15% growth per year. Since then, the challenge has not only grown in impact and volume but also in complexity. The Africa Cyberthreat Assessment 2021 Report estimates that the financial impact of cybercrime in Africa exceeds $4 billion, which is about 10% of the continent’s total GDP.
In Africa, driven by the affordability of internet-enabled devices and the expansion of communications infrastructure, the number of people online has grown fast in recent years. While the increased internet adoption has its benefits, this has also opened the window for malicious actors to infiltrate African businesses. Cybercriminals take advantage of those unaware or unprepared for their stealthy online activities.
The latest Microsoft Cyber Signals report outlines how cybercriminals are now using AI to scale up their fraudulent online operations. The Microsoft report highlights how scammers are leveraging AI in e-commerce, tech support, and employment fraud. The report also offers practical strategies for individuals and businesses to protect themselves.
African countries and businesses are particularly susceptible to cybercrime, including phishing, digital extortion, and business email compromise (BEC), as well as hybrid threats. The surge is facilitated by the increasing use and development of sophisticated technologies designed with malicious intentions. This also includes rising misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) on African enterprises and citizens.
For instance, in Africa, cybercriminals may exploit AI-generated material to impersonate high-level company executives and officials to steal valuable confidential data or funds. Attackers may also resort to using synthetic videos to implement advanced social engineering techniques through which they obtain sensitive personal information used to extort victims.
1. The Rising Tide of Cybercrime in Africa
A rapidly evolving African cybersecurity landscape comes with both opportunities and challenges. Reports indicate that ransomware and business email compromise are among the fastest-growing cyber threats for African businesses. Others are phishing and banking Trojans.
The 2024 Cyberthreat Assessment Report indicates that in Africa, ransomware ranked among the most serious emerging threats, often targeting critical digital infrastructure. Other types of online scams that target organizations and individuals also rank high in terms of financial impact.
Increasingly, cybercriminals are using advanced social engineering attacks and also leveraging sophisticated methods to impersonate company executives and officials, including AI-generated content. In April 2022, for example, the FBI claimed that South Africa was part of a group of 135 African countries whose internet infrastructure was being targeted by hackers from Russia.
2. The Devastating Impact on African SMEs
The INTERPOL African Cyber Threat Assessment Report was released in May 2024. It highlights an alarming trend of escalating cyber threats across the continent. Among the most widespread and serious attack sectors was ransomware. This is an attack that targets financial institutions, critical infrastructure, and manufacturing facilities, among several other key sectors.
Notably, in February 2023, in just a single week, about 300 cases of ransomware were detected by Kaspersky in South Africa. In 2023, the SA Banking Risk Information Centre indicated that South Africa lost $3 billion to mobile app and digital banking crime. In August 2022, the country’s central bank, South African Reserve Bank (SARB), suffered a cyberattack by unidentified hackers.
Nigeria in 2023 alone lost about $1.8 billion to cyber incidents, making the country one of the continent’s hardest-hit targets. The impact of ransomware can be devastating and may disrupt operations and jeopardize critical services like healthcare and public utilities. Such attacks can also have far-reaching consequences on a country’s economic stability and public safety. The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), for example, had its operations crippled by a ransomware attack in 2024. According to its Managing Director, ECG lost over $37 million in that ransomware attack.
In East Africa, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) has revealed that in 2023, Kenya lost over $80 million to cybercrime, while over 1 billion threats were detected from April to June 2024. This ranks Kenya second in Africa after Nigeria, which lost $1.8 billion. On average, Kenyan agencies and businesses affected by cyberattacks spent $4.35 million to restore their operations.
Besides the direct financial losses, investor confidence can be undermined by cybersecurity breaches. Increasingly, Africa is becoming a prime foreign investment destination, particularly in sectors telecommunications, fintech, and e-commerce. It therefore becomes important to maintain and win investor trust by having robust cybersecurity. For example, the Nigerian fintech sector which attracted nearly $1.4 billion in foreign investments in 2021 alone, could be in danger due to a weak cybersecurity framework.
3. How Cybercrime Works
Cybercrime targets a computer or a network device. The most common reason why hackers or cybercriminals attack is to get money. However, it’s not uncommon for cybercriminals to attack for reasons other than ransom money. Increasingly, cybercriminals now commit identity theft, spread malware, initiate phishing scams, or instigate other digital attacks.
Common types of attacks affecting African businesses include, but are not limited to the following:
– Phishing
Phishing has emerged as one of the biggest challenges faced by African SMEs. Phishing, is a deceptive practice where cybercriminals impersonate legitimate company officials or institutions to dupe victims into disclosing their confidential data, which leads to substantial financial damage for the affected organizations.
Email phishing is a common tactic used by cybercriminals. This cybercrime involves sending phony emails that mimic those coming from corporations or financial institutions which often prompt the victim to disclose personal information or financial verification codes/passwords.
Phishing can disrupt operations, freeze bank accounts, and even lead to serious legal repercussions from the affected partners or customers. If sensitive data is breached, the legal, financial, and reputation of the business can be seriously harmed.
There are several ways of warding off phishing intrusions, including installing a reliable firewall, regularly updating your software, and collaborating or working with a cybersecurity provider or a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP).
– Ransomware
Ransomware is a malware used by cybercriminals to lock users’ networks or computers so they can’t gain entry to company’s systems and files. Hackers encrypt an organization’s files so that the owners are unable to access them without a unique decryption key. To get that key, a company may have to pay a huge amount of money. Cybercriminals may often threaten to release company data and other sensitive information to pressure the victims into paying the ransom money.
The Data Protection Trends Report from Veeam indicates that in 2023, 85% of ransomware attacks were aimed at small businesses. The consequences of ransomware attacks on small businesses are severe, and most of the victims may be unable to operate during a severe ransomware attack. For example, the Electricity Company of Ghana suffered a ransomware attack in 2024 that crippled its operations, affecting millions. The utility company had to pay huge amounts of money to restore its services.
Businesses need to develop a coherent and robust cybersecurity strategy against ransomware. Cybersecurity best practices to pursue include data encryption, strong network security, robust authentication and access controls, and endpoint protection. It is also important to maintain an effective backup and recovery plan. Ensure business data is backed up regularly, and also have multiple encrypted backups. In addition, always scan backups for potential malware and verify them first by simulating the recovery process with a virtual or offline machine.
– SIM-Swap Fraud
SIM swap fraud is a type of cybercrime and account takeover where scammers manipulate the SIM swapping process to access a person’s financial and personal information. After illegally swapping a SIM card, fraudsters gain unauthorized control over the phone number, which then makes it possible for them to take over bank and social media accounts.
Once they activate a new SIM card, scammers can access every two-factor authentication (2FA) and one-time-pin (OTP) message sent to that victim’s number, which effectively gives them access to all the accounts and even use the same phone number to verify fraudulent transactions.
SIM swap attacks often target ecommerce platforms and retailers. They can result in unauthorized purchases, lost revenue, data breaches, and emptied loyalty accounts. They can also lead to long-term reputation damage for the business or trigger operational disruptions and loss of brand trust.
– Social Media Scams
Social media scams involving impersonation are on the rise in Africa, perhaps due to the increased use of social media. Scammers often create fake social media profiles masquerading as legitimate businesses. They may use stolen images, usernames, and logos to deceive customers into divulging personal information, to click on malicious links, or make payments to unauthorized accounts.
To protect themselves, businesses should frequently search for fake profiles that impersonate them and report them promptly and properly. To distinguish their accounts, businesses should enable verified checkmarks when using platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and X. Additionally warn customers only to use and trust official social media pages and website for transactions.
– Tech Support Scams
Tech support scams occur when fraudsters trick victims into unnecessary and unsolicited technical support services to fix software or device problems that are non-existent. They may then gain access to the computer remotely, which gives them access to all stored information on that device or connected networks. They often install malware in that device that gives them continuous access to files and sensitive data.
To counter tech support scams, educate employees on how to spot scams. This is particularly important as more businesses increasingly migrate their operations to cloud computing. While cloud-based environments come with many benefits, such as scalability and flexibility, cloud computing also presents special challenges in terms of data protection and compliance. For example, often cybercriminals target misconfigured cloud services through which they exploit vulnerabilities and gain unauthorized access to sensitive business and personal data.
4. How can African SMEs Fight Back
The cybersecurity landscape in Africa is projected to worsen in the future as more organizations digitize their operations and more people migrate online. It therefore becomes prudent for businesses to invest more in ensuring they run reputable and reliable IT systems that can protect data against any potential cyberattacks.
African businesses, particularly SMEs, need to appreciate that cybersecurity is not simply an IT matter but a critical business imperative. A Serianu study found that in Africa, 90% of SMEs lack cybersecurity measures which makes them susceptible to cyberattacks.
Some steps that African businesses can take include the following:
i. Invest in Cyber Security Software
For African businesses, this means investing more in software like endpoint detection and response. This acts as an online guard dog that alerts you and also helps counter any potential cyberattacks, like phishing emails and distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS). In a DDoS attack, cybercriminals flood a server with internet traffic that prevents users and customers from accessing any of the company’s sites or connected online services.
ii. Promote Digital Literacy
In Africa, raising cybersecurity awareness forms an important component of bridging the digital gap. Specific educational initiatives should be implemented that are inclusive. However, with more than 60% of Africa’s population being youthful and under the age of 25, digital literacy initiatives by both government and corporate sectors should focus more on the younger generation, who are also the most active online.
iii. Use Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) requires users to provide several forms of verification before they can gain entry into a website or account. MFA offers a business an additional security layer that protects against unauthorized entry and prevents potential breaches using stolen credentials.
Organizations should implement MFA across all their critical applications, such as financial and email accounts.
iv. Undertake Employee Training
To counter the threat of cybercrime, African companies must ensure that their employees are conversant with the different types of cyberattacks and help them acquire basic skills in cybersecurity. This is particularly critical as employees are often the first point of entry for most cyberattacks. Train staff on how to handle online scams and malicious emails, among other online frauds.
v. Partner with Cybersecurity Experts
African businesses should also consider recruiting the services of cybersecurity specialists who understand the current and future state of attacks, particularly in the new artificial intelligence dispensation. Cybersecurity experts can help a business assess the potential threats and then deploy essential remedial measures to secure or recover the company’s privacy and data.
5. Role of African Governments
African governments have an important role to play in enhancing cybersecurity. They must invest in robust cybersecurity frameworks and foster international cooperation in the fight against cybercrime by enacting comprehensive cyber laws.
Several African countries have already taken proactive steps in this direction. For example, South Africa has developed a National Cybersecurity Policy Framework. The framework seeks to enhance the country’s ability to not just prevent but respond to actual cyber incidents.
Likewise, Kenya has the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act. This legislation criminalizes various types of cybercrime and has also set up mechanisms for monitoring cyber threats and how to respond.
However, when it comes to cybersecurity readiness, significant gap still exists in Africa. According to the 2021 Global Cybersecurity Index by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), while some countries like South Africa and Mauritius rank relatively high, many others lag far behind in terms of cybersecurity maturity.
6. Conclusion
As cybercriminals adapt more advanced tactics to exploit system vulnerabilities, the African cybersecurity landscape will continue to encounter challenges. From email phishing and ransomware attacks to social media scams and fake tech support, the implications of cybercrime have far-reaching effects that can impact financial stability, organizational reputation, and customer trust.
For Africa, the journey to better cybersecurity resilience will demand commitment and a collaborative effort from all those involved. This starts with businesses, investors, employees, customers, cybersecurity experts, and governments.
For Africa’s future, enhanced cybersecurity will not simply be a technical requirement but a critical and strategic necessity. African nations, by making proactive investments in cybersecurity measures, can ensure digital security, protect technical infrastructure, foster economic growth, and safeguard customers in a world that is growing increasingly interconnected.
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Written by : Sammy Mwatha, Expert Author
Sammy Mwatha is a skilled content writer who blends business, tech, health, and lifestyle topics with analytical, story-driven insights.
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