Cracking of Passwords Listed Among Leading Threats By Kenyan Companies -Expert

By JULIE OWINO

NAIROBI, Kenya– Cracking of passwords is among the leading threats to Kenyan companies, both big and small, according to new data by Liquid Telecom. 

In an exclusive interview with the firm’s Head Of Cloud Services Winston Ritson, up to 63 percent of Kenyan firms have faced password compromise fraud since the work from home order was affected, putting their businesses on the line.
“A lot of businesses are really worried that users will either expose their passwords through social engineering or have it compromised because the device itself is not secure or the password that has been created is of poor quality,” said Ritson.
According to the company, firms operating in the fields of communication, wholesale and retail, and manufacturing have been the biggest victims of password compromise fraud. 

According to Ritson, the companies affected during the period have spent more money on paying for ransom for fraudsters forcing them to re-look their cyber security.  

 “Several companies were held up for ransom which is paid off in private and businesses have now started to spend more on securing their employees,” he added.

Other major threats recorded during the review period include insider threats, software engineering.

The study was conducted when most companies in Kenya adopted the work from home initiative in order to curb the spread of coronavirus disease that was first recorded in Kenya on March 11.

Data from the Communications Authority of Kenya revealed that Kenyan firms were hit with 37.1 million cyber-attacks, between October and December 2019.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

A survey conducted by PricewaterCoopers in March showed that Kenyan companies have lost as much as Sh5.5 billion in the last two years due to economic crimes.

The crimes include bribery and corruption, procurement fraud, asset misappropriation, and customer fraud.