Phishing, Cryptocurrency Attacks Threaten Data Security – Microsoft

• Phishing, Cryptocurrency Attacks Threaten Data Security – Microsoft

Microsoft has advised government and business organisations to put adequate security in place to prevent cyberattacks through phishing and cryptocurrency in the coming months.

Speaking at a cybersecurity roundtable in Lagos, the company said it had observed rising incidents of Enterprise Resource Planning system attacks and phishing globally in 2018.

Microsoft executives noted that hotspots for cyber-fraud in Nigeria were often through social engineering, poorly secured cloud apps, and taking advantage of legitimate platform features to infect computers.

They said the constant attacks across the continent necessitated a call to action by governments and industries to successfully mitigate cyber-risks.

Analysts estimated that in Nigeria, ministries, departments and agencies continued to lose over N127bn annually to cybercrime, amounting to 0.08 per cent of the country’s annual Gross Domestic Product.

“As organisations continue to digitally transform, so does their exposure to threats within cyberspace. Organisations need to leverage ever-improving capabilities with advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence to efficiently combat cybercrime. We have a responsibility to educate businesses about these recent developments – this is what encompassed our goal for this event,” the Country Manager for Nigeria and Ghana at Microsoft, Akin Banuso, said.

Sharing insights from its recently published Security Intelligence Report, Digital Advisor for Microsoft Middle East & Africa, Daniel Adeyemo, identified four key trends that had risen to the forefront in the fight against cyber-threats.

“From our ongoing research, we found that in the past year, ransomware attacks as a vector declined, software supply chains have become a risk, cryptocurrency mining is prevalent, and phishing still remains the preferred attack method,” Adeyemo added. “While this may indicate progress in blocking ransomware attacks against organisations, it also draws our attention to new avenues now being identified for attacks. These new avenues are very easily ignored by organisations but are a recognisable pathway for penetration.”

Adeyemo noted that damage from cybercrime could cost the world $6tn by 2021 while assuring participants that cloud technology remained integral to cybersecurity efforts in the Nigeria in 2019 and beyond.

According to him, by 2020, more than 25 per cent of enterprise attacks will involve Internet of Things, adding that IoT will account for only 10 per cent of IT security budgets.