Amid a backdrop of rising cyber attacks in Africa, Safaricom gathered nearly 500 leaders and professionals for a two-day Cybersecurity Summit in Nairobi, urging organisations, governments, and individuals alike to ramp up their cybersecurity measures.

The event, held as part of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, was themed “Secure Innovation, Unstoppable Growth for Kenyan Financial Services” and emphasised the urgent need for investing in technologies that defend sensitive data and critical systems from increasingly complex cyber threats.

The stakes are particularly high in Kenya, where digital vulnerabilities continue to grow.

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) recently reported a staggering 1.1 billion detected cyber threats between April and June 2024 alone, with issues attributed to the rise of IoT devices, outdated software, and the rapid evolution of technology such as Artificial Intelligence.

Across Africa, a 2024 Interpol report highlighted a troubling trend: the continent saw the highest global weekly average of cyber attacks per organisation in Q2, as 90 per cent of African businesses lack effective cybersecurity protocols, leaving them wide open to exploitation.

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“Cybercriminals are increasingly using advanced tactics such as ransomware, phishing, and social engineering to infiltrate financial systems. These attacks are becoming more personalized and targeted, aiming to compromise sensitive data and financial assets,” explained Ramakrishna Balagopa, Vice President Business – EMEA at SISA, an information security company.

He stressed that “it is imperative for organisations to explore emerging technologies to enhance cybersecurity resilience.”

Safaricom's Chief Executive, Peter Ndegwa, elaborated on the company's multi-layered approach to cybersecurity, which is designed to ensure uninterrupted business operations even in the face of attacks.

“At Safaricom, we continue to provide a variety of solutions that connect, protect, enable, and transform business, ensuring business continuity even in the face of cyberattacks," Ndegwa stated.

"We offer security advisory, network security, online/data/web security, cyber security operations and physical security that includes a video surveillance system. We also have an enhanced cloud solution and reliable connectivity and payment services."

Also present at the summit, Safaricom’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Cynthia Kropac, highlighted the unique challenges facing micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which have limited budgets and often lack essential cybersecurity expertise.

“With growing digitalisation globally, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) remain vulnerable to cyber-attacks with a lack of understanding of security risks and limited capital allocation to mitigate such threats,” she explained.

Kropac urged the need for focused training programs to help MSMEs build resilience, saying, “There is a need to equip MSMEs with knowledge and hands-on training on how to identify and combat cyber threats and become more cyber-resilient.”

With threats to Kenya's digital economy on the rise, the summit echoed the urgent need for collaborative measures and deeper investment in cybersecurity to secure the nation’s—and Africa’s—digital future.