Kenya Embracing High Speed Internet at Cost of Security

According to a report by Team Cymru, an America-based Internet security firm, malicious assaults on Kenyan websites have surged and the attacks are predicted to grow in number with more and more businesses going online.

Security analysts stated that Kenyan firms are underprepared to face any potential security threat, particularly the financial institutions that tend to be the most attractive targets as money can be easily drained off from the accounts.

Besides, the report by Team Cymru counted bot attacks launched on computer systems throughout Kenya and depicted that on a particular day in July, 784 bot attacks targeted Kenyan systems. This figure is expected to surge to approximately 50,000 attacks once fibre connectivity comes into action.

It is noted that a bot is a computer programme operating as an agent of the user or certain other programme and simulating a human action. On Internet, some of the bots are malevolent programmes that access websites and collect information for their owners.

In past, a large part of Africa has rested on satellite connections for Internet communications. But, as per the report, Google as well as several other service providers are expanding their data centre sites in the continent because of higher bandwidth availability coupled with underwater fibre optic connections. This will open up new avenues for the online criminals.

Security experts noted that the high speed connectivity will draw the attention of international hackers who earlier put off their activities in wake of the enormous time it took for breaking into local sites because of slower satellite connectivity.

Moreover, bot masters prefer infecting victim PCs by using high bandwidth. Botnets are basically used for Distributed Denial of Service attacks and stealing the sensitive credentials of victim and third party affiliate revenue via "loads". Cyber crooks will be eager to spread out their malicious domains, particularly through botnets.

Finally, security experts advised companies in Kenya to upgrade their information security systems so as to prevent international hackers from intruding into their networks as well as databases.

» SPAMfighter News - 10/5/2009