Matiang’i raises concern over cybercrimes increase

Kenya is experiencing increased cases of cyber threats internally, from foreign actors and terrorist organisations.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i yesterday said the threats involved cyber espionage operations, computer network attacks, online theft, hacking and denial of service to vital systems, identity theft, impersonation, online fraud among others.

The CS said between April and June 2019, the National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team detected  26.6 million cyber threats in the country. 

“As the world becomes inter-connected and the ICTs and the Internet play an increasingly important part of our everyday lives, our exposure to cyber threats also increases,” he said.

Matiang’i observed that the attacks were mainly attributed to the global increase in malware and ransomware attacks.

Matiang’i who was speaking during the Communications Authority National Cybersecurity Conference also said that the breach of data privacy was prevalent in the country, introducing additional complexities to the already vulnerable networks.

Communications Authority board chair Ngene Gituku said although the country had made massive strides in the ICT sector, it was also getting increasingly exposed to new and emerging technology threats.