APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) Ethiopia’s Information Network Security Administration (INSA) said it has reported more than 6,700 cyber attack attempts during the past fiscal year which ended July 7, 2023.
INSA’s Director General Solomon Kassa said in a press briefing on Tuesday said almost all of them were thwarted without causing any damages.
About 191 of them were able to cause threats, prompting the agency to take countermeasures, said the director noting that the response effectively neutralized 96 percent.
“The remaining few are being dealt with by cyber security experts,” Kassa said
According to the director, like the previous year, financial institutions are still the major targets of cyber attacks. Security and intelligence, media, health, education, strategic government institutions, as well as ministries and regional offices were among the targets.
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The type of cyber attack attempts involved targeting websites (2,554), malware (1‚295), infrastructure scan (603), DDOS (1493), hacking into networks (695), and others (145).
The intentions were to cause to destruct infrastructures as well as disrupt service delivery. The Director General said INSA managed to foil these threats, preventing 23.2 billion Birr worth of damages, in the process.
During the June-ended year, INSA took more preventive measures aimed at reducing the vulnerability of existing infrastructures and new IT products entering the country.
The agency conducted a survey to assess the vulnerability of 123 public and private institutions’ infrastructure including network, mobile applications, and systems. Corrective steps were taken after the survey found the risk level of 652 infrastructures very high, 187 high, 273 medium, and 192 small, per INSA.
The agency also prevented 582 information technology products, identified as “dangerous” for national security, from being imported into the nation.
MG/as/APA