Friday May 24, 2019
Ethiopia has witnessed a threefold rise in cyberattacks in the third quarter of the fiscal year compared to the first and second quarters. The country's security agency has recorded 488 cyberattacks in the last nine months of the current Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2018-2019 that started on July 8.
In a recent press statement, Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa-based Information Network Security Agency, the government body tasked with protecting the east African country's cyber security, revealed that it has recorded 488 cyberattacks in the last nine months of 2018/19. Most of the attacks targeted websites (39.9 percent), followed by key infrastructures (17.6 percent) and computer system (17.6 percent).
Information Network Security Agency (INSA) also revealed that the largest number of cyberattacks in Ethiopia, constituting around 40 percent of all cyberattacks, were targeted on websites, while the second largest number of cyberattacks targeted key infrastructure facilities, whereas around 15 percent of cyberattacks during the last nine months of 2018/19, were cyber hacking attempts, as reported by Xinhua.
The agency also cited that most of the cyberattacks targeting the East African country were terminated before they could cause any significant harm. The current Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed was one of the co-founders of the INSA and he worked in different positions with the agency between 2008 and 2015. Since he became the Prime Minister, he is engaged to introduce cyber technology across all public and private sectors.