Interpol has released its 2021 Africa Cyber Threat Assessment Report to help African countries understand the most prevalent cyber threats and develop a coordinated response to cybercrime.

Africa faces serious cyber threats, with telecom fraud at the top of the list

Based on data from Interpol member states and private sector partners, the report notes that cybercrime in Africa has become the most prevalent threat, with five being highlighted: telecommunications fraud, digital extortion, email intrusion, ransomware, botnets, and telecommunications fraud topping the list of five cyber threats.

According to Interpol, critical network facilities and online services in the African region have been attacked during the COVID-19 pandemic, most notably in South Africa and Botswana.

From January 2020 to February 2021, Interpol's partner companies recorded nearly 700 million threat detections in Africa, including 230 million in South Africa alone. Criminals launch cyber attacks to carry out fraud, extortion, theft of funds and other criminal activities, the serious cyber threat has led to South Africa's number of cybercrime victims ranked third in the world, causing 2.2 billion rand (about 143 million US dollars) in losses every year.

Cryptocurrency scams are on the rise in Africa, with South Africa the worst hit

The report also noted that another growing cyber threat in African member states is cryptocurrency scams, where fraudsters use fake platforms to defraud investors or abscond with money. South Africa is among the top 10 countries where fraudsters receive the largest amount of cryptocurrencies from illegal addresses.

In 2020, for example, Mirror Trading International (MTI) defrauded thousands of investors out of $588 million in bitcoin. In April 2021, the two founders of Africrypt fled with $3.6 billion in investors. At present, these two companies have absconded, please pay attention to the majority of investors and stay away!

The report concludes that Africa, as a region that is embracing digital transformation, needs to change its approach to cybercrime, and that Interpol supports African member states' strategies to combat cybercrime. Such as strengthening the collection of cyber crime intelligence to effectively deal with cyber crime; Strengthen cooperation to jointly combat cyber crimes; Developing regional capacity to combat cybercrime; Promote a sound cyber environment and build a more secure cyber space.

The network brings us unlimited convenience at the same time, but also let us in unknown danger, so FX110 reminds everyone to improve the awareness of network security, to be very vigilant about matters involving funds transactions, do not believe the network strangers recommend unknown financial projects, to avoid being cheated!