ADF STAFF
More than one-third of African business leaders and cybersecurity experts doubt that their governments and major economic players are prepared to respond effectively to a sophisticated cyberattack, according to a recent study by the World Economic Forum.
In its recently released 2025 Global Cybersecurity Outlook, the international economic body asked experts how confident they were in their country’s ability to respond to major cyber incidents targeting critical infrastructure. Among African respondents, 36% said they had no confidence while an equal percentage said they were confident or very confident.
Africa lags behind the rest of the world in internet use, but that is changing rapidly. The number of African internet users jumped from 181 million in 2014 to 646 million in 2024, according to Statistica. Experts estimate that by 2029, 1.1 billion Africans will be online.
African nations’ rapid adoption of the internet has far outstripped their supply of trained cybersecurity experts who can protect internet users from online criminals. According to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, Africa has just 20,000 cybersecurity experts — about one-fifth the total needed for a population of 1.4 billion.
All of those factors could leave people vulnerable to a growing list of increasingly sophisticated threats from online criminals.
“Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue,” Jeremy Jurgens, managing director of the World Economic Forum (WEF), said in a statement. “It’s a business, social, and geopolitical challenge. Organizations must act now to build resilient systems and protect against an increasingly complex array of threats.”
According to the WEF report, those threats include:
- Cyberattacks generated by artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can fool attempts to block them.
- Increasing attacks against operation technology — the computer systems that oversee processes in manufacturing, power generation and transportation, among other things.
- The rise of cyberattacks against infrastructure as a weapon in geopolitical conflicts.
- Using cyberattacks to exploit vulnerable populations recovering from natural disasters and other societal disruptions.
Although African countries already experience these attacks to some degree, the rapid expansion of online technology without appropriate safeguards will leave populations across the continent at risk, according to cybersecurity experts.
In 2024 alone, African nations experienced multiple high-profile attacks against the kind of critical infrastructure the WEF report is warning about.
Hackers launched attacks against the national power company in Cameroon, telecommunications systems in Namibia and Uganda, financial institutions in Nigeria and Uganda, and government agencies in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
A cyberattack on South Africa’s National Health Laboratory System shut down its entire system and disrupted health care nationwide. As the target of 22% of cyberattacks on the continent, South Africa routinely ranks among the leading nations in the world for the number of cybercrime victims, costing the country nearly $3 million per data breach.
IT Web Africa estimates that one in nine Android-based mobile phone users in Nigeria has installed at least one malware-infected application. As Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria has Africa’s largest online population. It also is home to some of the continent’s most active online criminals.
One key defense against cybercrime is greater digital literacy among Africans using the internet. In essence, millions of people know how to use their smartphone, email and computers, but few understand how cybercriminals are targeting them.
Interpol’s African Cyberthreat Assessment Report declares that improving digital literacy among Africa’s online community is vital to curbing cybercrime.
Countries also must invest more in training cybersecurity experts to counter threats from AI and bad actors, according to Sadique Kwatsima, a researcher with the Kenya-based cybersecurity firm Enovise Group.
In an essay posted on LinkedIn, Kwatsima called for great regional and international cooperation to fight cybercrime and for promoting greater digital literacy among the general population.
By addressing those issues, “Africa can turn its cybersecurity vulnerabilities into opportunities for growth and resilience,” Kwatsima wrote. “Africa’s journey towards a secure digital future requires a multifaceted approach that addresses unique challenges head-on.”
