According to the global report by Kaspersky Security Services ‘Anatomy of a Cyber World’, the government sector has emerged as the most targeted sector for the second consecutive year, accounting for 19% of all high-severity incidents in 2025.

The industrial sector closely followed at 17%, while the IT sector rose to third place with 15%, displacing finance from the top three targeted industries.

The ‘Anatomy of a Cyber World’ is a comprehensive global report drawing on incident statistics from Kaspersky Managed Detection and Response, Kaspersky Incident Response, Kaspersky Compromise Assessment and Kaspersky SOC Consulting.

This report sheds light on the most prevalent attacker tactics, techniques and tools, as well as the characteristics of detected incidents and their distribution across regions and industry sectors.

Building on these findings, the report reveals that government bodies continued to be the most targeted sector in 2025. A deeper examination of the root causes of attacks within this sector uncovers that Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) were the most common, accounting for 33,3% of incidents.

This trend highlights the increasing sophistication of adversaries who persistently evolve their tactics to bypass automated protection. Additionally, 18,9% of government organisations experienced social engineering attacks, underscoring that employees remain a critical entry point for cyber threats.

This dual vulnerability, from both advanced persistent attackers and social engineering campaigns, underscores the need to strengthen not only technology but also organisational resilience.

Implementing measures such as role-based access control and limiting privileges can significantly reduce the impact of compromised accounts, particularly in large, distributed government environments.

The industrial sector presents a different but equally concerning profile. Threats in industrial environments are distributed with striking uniformity: APT-driven incidents constitute 17,8%, malware 14,9% and social engineering 13,9%.

This pattern suggests that industrial organisations attract a broad range of adversaries with different capabilities and objectives, rather than being primarily targeted by a single type of threat actor. Notably, confirmed cyber exercises like red teaming accounts for 22,8% of incidents in the sector, the highest share among the top three industries, reflecting growing investment in proactive security validation among industrial organisations.

In contrast, the IT sector shows a markedly different pattern. With 41% of incidents attributed to human-driven APT attacks, the highest rate across all sectors, IT organisations are clearly a priority target for sophisticated threat actors seeking to exploit trusted relationships and scale their impact through supply chains.

APT traces, which are artifacts from previous advanced persistent threat activity, were identified in an additional 17% of cases, while social engineering accounted for 11%. In contrast, red teaming represents only 9% of IT incidents, suggesting that proactive security testing remains underutilised relative to the sector’s actual threat exposure.

Interestingly, the finance sector was displaced from the top three targeted industries. According to the report, red teaming in this sector accounts for 36,1% of incidents, reflecting a mature, compliance-driven approach to proactive defence, while confirmed APT activity remains comparatively low at 11,5%.

This pattern indicates that sustained investment in security assessment can effectively enhance a company’s ability to identify vulnerabilities early, avoiding costly breaches and reducing the risk of significant damage to reputation and operations.

“Government, industrial and IT organisations consistently attract sophisticated adversaries because of the strategic value of what they hold, operate and connect to geopolitical intelligence, critical infrastructure and global supply chains respectively. The 2025 data confirms that these attacks are not opportunistic: they are targeted and often aimed at establishing persistent access.

Each of these sectors needs to operate on the assumption that determined attackers will find a way in, and focus their defences on early detection, rapid containment and minimising the window of exposure. So, proactive threat hunting, continuous monitoring and regular compromise assessments are no longer optional for organisations of any size across these industries,” comments Sergey Soldatov, Head of Security Operations at Kaspersky.

Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has approved five companies to provide airtime and data lending services in Nigeria, following the suspension of such services by mobile network operators (MNOs).

FCCPC

The affected telecom operators, including MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria, had announced the temporary halt of their airtime and data credit services in compliance with new regulatory requirements.

Checks indicate that Globacom and 9mobile (formerly Etisalat Nigeria) have also suspended the services, making it a sector-wide decision among telecom operators.

In a statement, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission said the newly approved firms include Total Tim Nigeria Ltd., Rane Interactive Medien CLS Ltd., Mode NG Applications Ltd., Cloud Interactive Associate Ltd., and Coverage Broadband Ltd.

The commission said the companies met all requirements under the Digital, Electronic, Online or Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations, 2025.

It explained that the regulation aims to ensure fairness, transparency, and improved consumer protection within Nigeria’s digital lending ecosystem.

Speaking on the development, Ondaje Ijagwu, Director of Corporate Affairs at the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, said some telecom operators had engaged in exclusionary arrangements in violation of existing laws.

He noted that the framework was introduced to open up the market to both local and international participants in line with free market principles.

Ijagwu added that telecom operators were initially given a 90-day compliance window from July 2025, which was later extended to Jan. 5, 2026, but the required adjustments were not completed within the stipulated period.

A telecom official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the new regulatory demands added to existing oversight by the Nigerian Communications Commission, thereby creating multiple layers of compliance for operators.

“Telcos are enablers of other sectors and already fully regulated. Additional compliance requirements from different regulators can be distracting,” the source said.

The official added that operators had opted to step aside temporarily while observing developments, noting that some revenue loss would occur as a result of the suspension.

He, however, said telecom companies would still play a role by supplying airtime to the licensed lenders through commercial agreements.

Meanwhile, subscribers have expressed concern over the suspension of the services, particularly those who rely on airtime borrowing during emergencies.

Some users said the popular USSD code *303# is no longer providing the relief it once offered, describing the development as a setback for many Nigerians facing financial constraints.

Ravenewsonline reports that the FCCPC had earlier set Oct. 31, 2025, as the deadline for digital lenders to register or face sanctions, including a fine of N100 million.

The deadline was later extended to Jan. 5, 2026, to allow for full compliance across the sector.

Four Nigerian technology startups – Bani, MasteryHive AI, Regxta, Termii – have been selected to join the 10th cohort of the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa.

Chosen from an exceptionally competitive pool of nearly 2,600 applications, these innovators are part of a final pan-African group of 15 companies. With an acceptance rate of less than 1%, their selection highlights the immense technical talent and resilience emerging from Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.

The selected Nigerian startups are utilizing Artificial Intelligence to address critical local and regional challenges:

Bani : A cross-border payments infrastructure platform eliminating settlement delays for African businesses trading globally.

MasteryHive AI : An AI-native platform automating transaction reconciliation, fraud detection, and AML monitoring.

Regxta : Combines alternative data-driven credit scoring with a hybrid digital-agent distribution model to deliver financial products to unbanked micro businesses.

Termii : An AI-native communications infrastructure platform ensuring reliable financial messaging for banks and fintechs.

African tech founders are actively solving fundamental infrastructural challenges, bridging gaps in financial inclusion, healthcare, and supply chains with complex AI. The continent’s venture ecosystem showed remarkable resilience by raising $3.9 billion in 2025. However, scaling deep-tech solutions requires specialized technical infrastructure, advanced cloud capabilities, and strategic mentorship to complement this capital. Accelerator programs provide these exact tools, ensuring local innovations can sustainably grow into businesses that power the continent’s digital economy.

Gbolade Emmanuel, CEO of Nigeria-based Termii, noted: “At Termii, we’re building AI-powered infrastructure that ensures financial transactions don’t fail, from login PINs to payment OTPs and fraud alerts. The Google Startup Accelerator is helping us accelerate our AI roadmap and scale globally, and even in the first week, access to technical support and insights has been incredibly valuable for our next phase of growth.”

“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome these exceptional founders into Class 10,” said Folarin Aiyegbusi, Head of Startup Ecosystem, Africa. “African startups are driving essential economic growth and social development. Our role is to serve as a supportive partner, providing these developers and founders with the technical infrastructure, mentorship, and global network they need to scale their solutions and amplify their real-world impact.”

Running from April 13th to June 19th, 2026, the hybrid program will provide the 15 startups with dedicated guidance from experienced mentors and industry experts, alongside hands-on technical workshops focused on AI and machine learning.

Since launching in 2018, the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa program has supported 106 startups from 17 African countries, empowering them to collectively raise over $263 million and create more than 2,800 jobs.

For more information on the full list of 15 startups participating in Class 10, please visit the Google Africa Blog at https://blog.google/intl/en-africa/company-news/meet-the-15-startups-joining-the-google-for-startups-accelerator-africa-class-10/.