Africa Has Suffered 20 Billion USD Loss In Over Decade Due to Cyber Attacks
Addis Ababa The continent of Africa has incurred 20 billion USD loss as a result of 873 million cyber-attacks in the period from 2011-2021, data from sources such as the World Bank, International Telecommunication Union, Telecom Regulators, DataReportal revealed.
Regional Cyber-attacks/Financial Losses 2011-2021 include the report of 40 African nations, 15 Latin America and 15 Asia/ Middle East countries.
Lead Consultant for the UN Research on Cyber Security Development, Jimson Olufuye said cyber security challenge relates to all nations and this implies that all nations need to collaborate.
For cyber space, we need to enact appropriate laws, putting regulations that will ensure even capacity development for citizens to enable them to know what to do or not, he added.
“There is positive cyber security in which about 65 percent of African countries have well organized cyber security activity; and we need to continue the process. Data show that if we continue to watch the security of the internet (cyber space) our GDP will rise and income increase for our people.”
According to him, low per capita output in Africa is a reflection of lack of proportionate increase in income, implying that African countries need to diversify their income base and boost intra- African trade.
“The stronger a nation’s cyber security posture, the lower the financial losses per capita. Nations therefore need to take cyber security seriously to reduce losses, if not completely eliminate it,” Olufuye noted.
He recommended the need for stable and accountable national/organizational governance system over a sustained period of time for cyber security to have stronger correlation with development.
Laws requiring disclosure of cyber-attacks and losses in corporate entities and individuals should be enacted to promote transparency and accountability towards improved effort at addressing the cyber security challenge.
The consultant further recommended that mechanisms be put in place to make it easy for victims to report such cases.
Example: Web app that enhances ease of reporting with free tips on how to prevent future attacks and recover from losses.
Olufuye stated that as security offline is critical to economic development, likewise is cyber security critical to internet enabled economic development activities in the fast pace for the 4th industrial revolution due to positive correlation of Internet Penetration and Cyber security to GDP data across all the research regions.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency