Just As The Internet Has Evolved, So Too Have Cyber Criminals

The digital revolution is storming ahead, alongside the incredible benefits that the Internet brings, comes ever-increasing risk of cyber attacks.

- Bontle Headbush

The whole notion of cyber security may conjure up images of James Bond - like scenes of a villain caught up in the act of attempting to destabilise countries or multinational corporations through some form of cyber attack, forcing the ever-resourceful Bond (who has since morphed into a cyber whiz of course) to then spend the next hour and a half devising some online solution for this conundrum.

A bit far fetched? Well that seems to be how we as a continent are inclined to view cyber security. We appear to be stuck in a mind-set that tells us that this belongs in the realm of the movies, or at least in the more advanced countries of the West where movies such as these originate.

However, this is a mind-set that we need to discard because cyber threats are a reality the world over. And Africa is not immune to cyber attacks. However, we appear to have no meaningful approach as individual countries or as a region to disarm these attacks, let alone any significant resources dedicated towards tackling cyber security threats. This is a recipe for disaster.

Cyber criminals just got smarter

Global Internet usage has grown exponentially. In 1995 there were 16 million users consuming 180,000 gigabytes of data a month; these days over 3.6 billion users consume over 72.5 billion gigabytes of data per month. Just as the internet has evolved to such a point that it has changed life as we know it, so too have the cyber criminals sharpened their skills to a point where there are now close to one million malware (computer virus’ or other malicious software) threats every day. In many cases the next malware is more harmful than its predecessor.