….Nigeria Suffers More Complex Attacks
As cybercriminals continue to rev up their disruptive attacks on global systems, Nigeria has been reported among the biggest victims in the West African cubregion, suffering 2,721 cyberattacks in the first half of this year.
The latest NETSCOUT’s 1H2024 DDoS Threat Intelligence Report (TIR), indicated in the period under review, attacks on the computer-related services field were prevalent in the country, with 867 incidents, followed by local beauty salons which recorded 206 incidents, and data processing hosting companies at 116.
Ghana, however, led the region in both the frequency and diversity of cyber threats for the first half of 2024, facing a high volume of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks directed at industries, including computer services and telecommunications.
According to the report, Ghana was subjected to a total of 4,753 attacks over the six months, of which 2,759 were aimed at computer-related services businesses, followed by wireless telecommunications carriers (except satellite) which suffered 110 attacks, and full-service restaurants which were another vertical industry under fire. Furthermore,
The figures indicated that Ghana experienced by far the highest volume attack in West Africa, with the maximum bandwidth of its largest DDoS attack measuring 314.25 Mbps.
Also, Guinea, which is reputed as an economic resilience that is driven by agriculture and mining, surprisingly took second spot in the report’s findings in the sub-region in terms of attack frequency, with recorded 2,918 incidents. The country’s wireless telecommunications carriers bore the brunt of the attacks, which were mostly Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)-type attacks.
The report further showed that Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia both faced similar attack frequencies, with 1,598 and 1,515 incidents recorded respectively. The two countries also experienced similarities in the types of attacks vectors used, which were mostly TCP-related, as well as the sector that was hardest hit, which was wireless telecommunications for both.
Again, the results of the report proved that wireless telecommunications carriers were the prime targets for threat actors in Benin (196 incidents), Senegal (107), Mali (32) and Cameroon (16).
Commenting on the report’s findings, Regional Director for Africa at NETSCOUT, Bryan Hamman, said: “The growing complexity of distributed denial of service (DDoS) threats seen worldwide, including a notable increase in both attack frequency and sophistication, is clearly reflected in Nigeria.
“The country experienced more complex attacks than others within the region, with 23 different attacks vendors seen in one single attack, from TCP and CLDAP (Connection-less Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) attacks to Domain Name System (DNS) amplification and many more”, the industry expert added.
Hamman further clarified that the report’s findings were “in line with NETSCOUT’s global Threat Intelligence Report figures, which measured attacks on the sector at 834,471 for the first part of 2024, a substantial 34 per cent increase on the figures seen for 2H 2023, which was calculated at 622,295.
“We believe this points to an objective by cybercriminals to disrupt critical communication infrastructure”, he stressed.
