E-Business
Beware of Deepfakes in the AI Age, Warns Kaspersky
The widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies in recent years is providing threat actors with sophisticated new tools to perpetrate their attacks.
One of these are deepfakes which include generated human-like speech or photo and video replicas of people. While the time and effort to create these attacks often outweigh their potential ‘rewards’, Kaspersky warns that companies and consumers across Africa must still be aware that deepfakes will likely become more of a concern in the future.
“The potential for malicious use when it comes to deepfakes is clear,” says Bethwel Opil, Enterprise Client Lead at Kaspersky in Africa. “From blackmailing to perpetrating financial fraud and spreading misinformation via social media, the potential knock-on effects may be significant.
Invariably, cybercriminals are still looking for cheaper and quicker methods to propagate their campaigns.
However, we anticipate an increase in targeted attacks using deepfakes, especially against influential people and high net worth individuals or organisations in the coming years that will justify the time and effort it takes attackers to create deepfakes.”
Kaspersky research has found the availability of deepfake creation tools and services on darknet marketplaces.
These services offer generative AI video creation for a variety of purposes, including fraud, blackmail, and stealing confidential data.
According to the estimates by Kaspersky experts, prices per one minute of a deepfake video can be purchased for as little as $300.
There are also concerns across the continent when it comes to the significant divide around digital literacy amongst Internet users.
According to the recent Kaspersky Business Digitisation Survey¹ 51% of employees surveyed in the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region said they could tell a deepfake from a real image, however in a test only 25%2 could actually distinguish a real image from an AI-generated one.
This puts organisations at risk given how employees are often the primary targets of phishing and other social engineering attacks.
For example, cybercriminals can create a fake video of a CEO requesting a wire transfer or authorising a payment, which can be used to steal corporate funds. Compromising videos or images of individuals can be created, which can be used to extort money or information from them.
“Despite the technology for creating high-quality deepfakes not being widely available yet, one of the most likely use cases that will come from this is to generate voices in real-time to impersonate someone.
“For example, a finance worker at a multinational firm was recently tricked into transferring $25 million to fraudsters because of deepfake technology posed as the company’s chief financial officer in a video conference call.
“Africa is not immune to this threat and it’s important to remember that deepfakes are a threat not only to businesses, but also to individual users – they spread misinformation, are used for scams, or to impersonate someone without consent – and are a growing cyberthreat to be protected from,” says Bethwel Opil.
E-Business
NITDA to Integrate of Digital Literacy into School Curriculum
Kashifu Abdullahi, director general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), announced plans to integrate digital literacy into Nigeria’s education system, to achieve a 70% literacy rate by 2027 and 95% by 2030.
The NITDA’s DG made the announcement on Wednesday in Abuja during a media parley.
He stated that in order to include digital literacy in the curriculum at all educational levels, from kindergarten to university, the Agency was collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Education.
Abdullahi, said that this program would equip Nigerians with the digital know-how and abilities they need to succeed in the digital economy.
He emphasized that NITDA would also launch the “Digital Literacy for All Initiative” to educate Nigerians outside the formal education system and provide access to quality digital content.
Nigeria would train over two million young people in in-demand IT skills in order to become significant global outsourcing hub
NITDA is also collaborating with the Defence Headquarters and security agencies to develop digital solutions to address security concerns, including the use of drones, artificial intelligence, and other digital resources to combat banditry, abduction, and terrorism, he said.
According to him, the agency’s draft SRAP 2.0 plan aims to establish Nigeria as a digitally empowered nation, with a focus on innovation, national prosperity, and inclusivity.
The director general of NITDA added that, if successfully implemented, this strategy could propel Nigeria into a new phase of digital empowerment and leadership in the global digital economy.
E-Business
Experts Highlight Trusted Relationships as Key Vector
In 2023, more than 1/5 of cyberattacks persisted for over a month, the annual Kaspersky Incident Response 2023 report has revealed, with trusted relationships emerging as one of the main attack vectors in these prolonged cases.
The report draws on the results of Kaspersky’s cyberattack investigations throughout the year, gathered when supporting organisations sought incident response assistance or when hosting expert events for their internal incident response teams.
Primary reasons of organisations approaching Kaspersky Incident Response team with service requests were encrypted files (32.8% of requests), suspicious activities (31%), data leakage (20%), and also included non-authorised accesses (3%), service unavailability (3%) and money theft (1.6%).
Among initial attack vectors of the investigated incidents were exploiting public facing application (42.4%), compromised accounts and BruteForce attacks (28.8% in total), trusted relationships (6.78%), phishing (5%), insider’s activity (3.4%).
Kaspersky Incident Response 2023 report indicates that long-lasting cyberattacks that persist for more than a month constituted 21.85% of the total, increasing from 2022 by 5.55%.
One notable trend observed in these attacks was the exploitation of trusted relationships as a primary vector. Compromises leveraging trusted relationships have occurred previously, but in 2023 their frequency increased.
As this method of attack enables threat actors to infiltrate multiple victims through a single compromised organisation, investigative teams face several additional challenges. Firstly, initially targeted organisations don’t always recognise the importance of thorough investigations and may be reluctant to cooperate.
Secondly, attacks initiated through trusted relationships often require more time to progress from the initial intrusion to the final incursion phase. Therefore 50% of these attacks lasted more than a month. A similar proportion of attacks exceeding one month were exclusively registered within the insider and phishing vectors.
“Our latest findings underscore the critical role of trust in cyberattacks. In 2023 and for the first time in recent years, attacks through trusted relationships were among the three most used vectors. Half of these incidents were discovered only after a data leak had been found.
“By exploiting trusted relationships, threat actors can prolong attacks and infiltrate networks for extended periods, posing significant risks to organisations. It’s imperative for businesses to remain vigilant and prioritise security measures to safeguard against such sophisticated tactics,” comments Konstantin Sapronov, Head of Global Emergency Response Team at Kaspersky.
E-Business
OmniRetail Emerges First in Financial Times’ Ranking of Africa’s Fastest-Growing Companies
Omniretail, a B2B enablement platform focusing on digital infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa, is proud to announce it has secured the top position in the Financial Times (FT) ranking of Africa’s Fastest-Growing Companies for 2024.
The ranking, now in its third year, continues to highlight the dynamism and growth of companies in sectors including fintech, renewable energy, healthcare, e-commerce, and agriculture.
The FT presents Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies list comprising innovative, modern, companies growing at scale, that are the driving force of the international economy in the 21st century.
The Financial Times partners with Statista, to produce similar rankings for companies in Europe, Asia, and America. The inclusion of OmniRetail as part of this prestigious list is a testament to its success and exceptional performance.
Similar to the ranking for other markets, the Africa list places companies by their compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue between 2019 and 2022. OmniRetail has grown by 772.39% over these 3 years, making it Africa’s fastest-growing company in 2024.
Launched in 2019, OmniBiz is the flagship product of OmniRetail, a distribution platform that digitises the supply chain from distributors to retailers by embracing a retailer-first, asset-light approach.
OmniBiz enables retailers to place orders directly from manufacturers. These orders are fulfilled by partner distributors, who specialise in warehousing, while transportation responsibilities are delegated to third-party logistics providers, ensuring delivery to retailers within 24 hours.
OmniRetail is building a collaborative platform that includes other innovative tools like OmniPay and Mplify, which equips retailers with essential resources and tools to procure products, build and access credit, and optimise their business for higher profitability and scale. With over 140,000 small retailers and over 200 brands onboarded, OmniRetail aims to redefine the retail industry in Africa.
Deepankar Rustagi, CEO of OmniRetail, said, “We’re proud to enter the FT Africa’s fastest-growing list for the first time and even more so to be at the top of the list.
This is a tribute to the hard work and perseverance of everyone at OmniRetail. Africa deserves a robust digital infrastructure layered on top of the existing informal retail sector, and we’re proud of the progress we’ve made so far.
We are equally proud of our work towards empowering and supporting more retailers previously excluded by the financial ecosystem and those experiencing cash flow issues to enhance their supply chain processes.
Through OmniRetail, we help retailers grow through our integrated digital infrastructure providing access to essential goods and capital. We will continue to improve infrastructure for efficient product distribution, envisioning more product variety and efficient distribution to even more remote areas.
As a company, we are on a journey to completely eliminate the inefficiencies of traditional trade by digitising the key stakeholders across the value chain”.
OmniRetail’s business model revolves around the OmniBiz platform, which digitises the supply chain, while OmniPay processes over $50 million in transactions.
This emphasises high-margin product categories and offers structured rebates and incentives. To optimise delivery van loads, OmniRetail uses an algorithm and operates with a robust model that includes decentralised warehousing.
At least 78% of OmniRetail’s retailers and distributors are women, reflecting robust financial inclusion by providing access to banking services, working capital, and genuine digitisation.
The company works with more than 4800 distributor partners and 1100 committed vehicles and compensates partners based on delivered value. OmniRetail recently achieved profitability, boasting gross margins of 9% and net contribution margins of 5% as of January 2024, with a registered retailer base of 144,000.
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