The Ethiopian intelligence office has foiled 787 attempted cyber attacks during the last Ethiopian Fiscal year, which ended on July7, 2020, an official has said.
Out of 954 attempted attacks, 787 were fully thwarted and the remaining 167 were not tackled for various reasons, Kefialew Tefera, the country’s Information Network Security Agency Deputy Director General told journalists on Monday .
Of the total attempted attacks 474 were spearheaded via malwares while 288 targeted websites through malicious scripts and the other 104 were interferences in infrastructural developments.
The other 188 were attempted to access prohibited sites, 22 to disrupt Information Network Infrastructures while 2 are related to deceptions.
Most of the cyber attacks targeted infrastructural development institutions, according to the Deputy Director General.
According to the Deputy Director General, 90 percent of the attacks seen due to institutions’ increased engagement in the digital world, low awareness of Internet security techniques among individuals, failure to implement basic Internet security technologies, use of illegal softwares and negligence to check computer system security in organizations.
Compared to the previous years, the extent of cyber attack attempts targeting public and private institutions is increasing though the Agency’s Cyber Security Risk Management and Repose Division responded to them before they caused significant harm.
The agency has offered training to employees of public and private institutions on cyber security and related preventive mechanisms to effectively counteract attacks being orchestrated to disrupt infrastructural systems in the country, the Deputy Director General added.
MG/abj/APA