Nigeria internet users highly vulnerable to cyber-attacks –– Kaspersky

International cyber policing company,
Kaspersky Laboratory Solution, says
internet operations witnessed
increased mobile threats, financial
theft from online banking and targeted
cyber-attacks in the first nine months
of 2015.
The company, in a statement,

specifically identified Nigerian internet
users as highly vulnerable to cyber-
attacks.
It said that 14 per cent of users in
Nigeria in the third quarter of 2015
faced cyber threats from the Internet,
while 46 per cent encountered malware
virus attacks through local networks.
“In third quarter of 2015 overall 45.3
per cent of Kaspersky anti-virus users
in Nigeria encountered malware that
spread in local networks, through USBs
and storage disks, while 13.8 per cent
faced cyber threats from the Internet.
According to Kaspersky, globally,
Nigeria ranks as 64th most attacked
country in terms of malware and 128th
in terms of cyber threats.
The company also said that 235.4
million malicious virus attacks from
online resources were detected and
repelled globally in the period under
review.
“Kaspersky Laboratory’s web antivirus
detected 38.2 million unique malicious
objects: scripts, exploits, executable
files, etc.
“This is 46.9 per cent higher than virus
attacks recorded in the second.
“In addition 5.68 million registered
notifications about attempted malware
infections that aim to steal money via
online access to bank accounts were
recorded.
“The overall trend so far for 2015 has
continued in the third quarter: Exploits
for Adobe Flash Player and Internet
Explorer are most popular with
cybercriminals,’’ it added.
Kapersky said malicious mobile
programmes were on the increase with
5.6 million cases of attempted theft
from online bank accounts.
The company said that 323,374 new
malicious mobile programmes or an
increase of 10.8 per cent was witnessed
in the second quarter of 2015, while three to one
growth were detected by its mobile security products
in the third quarter.
It added that there were more than 1.5 million
malicious packages installed on mobile devices in
the period under review and 1.5 times more than in
the previous quarter.
The company noted that adverts had remained the
main vehicle of making money from mobile threats.
“They often root the device of a victim and use
super user privileges, making it very difficult to
combat them.
“In the third quarter of 2015, Trojans accounted for
more than half the most popular mobile malware,’’ it
added.
Kaspersky also said that virus threats to banks
customers using online banking in period under
review witnessed about 626,000 or 5.7 per cent
attempts in using malware to steal money.
“During the quarter, there were 5.68 million
notifications about attempted malware infections to
steal money from users via online access to bank
accounts,’’ it said.