E-Business
F5 Reports Rising Multi-Cloud Adoption
More and more businesses globally are moving to a multi-cloud situation to deploy or access services.
This is according to F5 Networks’ recent report, ‘The State of Application Delivery 2018’ (SOAD), in which more than 50 percent of the respondents, representing IT professionals from all over the globe, said they use between two and six cloud environments.
The F5 report, now in its fourth year, surveys more than 3,400 industry peers, evaluating the state of application services and looking into motivations underlying the deployment of application services.
It covered more than 300 organisations across a broad spectrum of vertical markets such as banking and finance, telecommunications, public sector and consumer products.
The five key findings revolved around the issues of digital transformation, inspiring new architectures and IT optimisation initiatives; multi-cloud deployment, which enables the best cloud for the app; application services as the gateways to the future; the fact that IT optimisation drives the use of automisation; and the relationship between security confidence and the rise of multi-cloud.
The survey notes that, according to 49 percent of respondents, digital transformation is encouraging the delivery of applications from the cloud. Simon McCullough, major channel account manager at F5, noted that attacks on applications are becoming more complex, leading to organisations transforming the traditional perimeter to include the new everyday reality of users accessing applications from anywhere, at any time, and from any device.
He added, “A key finding of this year’s SOAD report was the continuous increase in multi-cloud deployments, which enable organisations to select the cloud platform that best meets the requirements of a specific application. This scenario, however, which allows a company to transform their application portfolio to compete in today’s digital economy, also increases the challenges that many companies face in managing their operations across multiple clouds and, consequently, their security.”
The report saw that nearly nine out of 10 respondents are now using multiple clouds as a result of their ‘best-of-breed’ strategy for each application deployment. Forty nine percent of overall survey respondents are moving to deliver apps from the public cloud. Over half (59 percent) reported that they are utilising two to six clouds.
The report notes: “Applications streamline processes, provide new services and offerings, and enhance customer experiences… IT decisions get made based on app requirements. At the same time, the speed and scale required from the digital economy is moving IT off premises and into the cloud. This means that cloud decisions are made on a case by case, per-application basis according to 56 percent of the respondents. As customers have on average over 200 applications, with varying requirements, it’s no surprise that most respondents are operating in multi-cloud environments.”
“The power of apps in the business world is unmistakable,” says Anton Jacobsz, managing director at Networks Unlimited, a value-added distributor of F5 in Africa. “The right technology should support apps to optimise a business and not hamper productivity. Our mission is to empower a business’ limitless potential, and we recommend F5’s app security solutions to move your business forward, making your people more productive and creating a better experience for your customers.”
F5 security solutions have been developed to offer customers complete visibility and control at scale. “Applications ‒ along with their users and data ‒ are exposed to enormous risk as they travel from device to data centre server and back again. Unpredictable and stealthy cyber threats continue to disrupt user availability and exploit financial information and intellectual property. F5 secures access to applications from anywhere while protecting them wherever they reside. F5 helps businesses protect sensitive data and intellectual property while minimising application downtime and maximising end-user productivity,” concluded McCullough.
Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) experts at the 10th annual Cyber Security Weekend – META 2025 held recently, talked about supply chain attacks and reported that by the end of 2024 a total of 14,000 malicious packages were found in open-source projects, a 48% increase compared to the end of 2023. 42 million versions of open-source packages have been examined by Kaspersky throughout 2024 in search for vulnerabilities.
Open-source is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance. Popular open-source packages include GoMod, Maven, NuGet, npm, PyPI, and others.
These are tools that power countless applications and help developers easily find, install, and manage pre-built code libraries, making it simpler to build software by reusing code others have written. Attackers take advantage of the popularity of these and other packages.
In March 2025, the Lazarus Group was reported to have deployed several malicious npm packages, which were downloaded multiple times before removal. These packages contained malware to steal credentials, cryptocurrency wallet data, and deploy backdoors, targeting developers’ systems across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The attack leveraged GitHub repositories for added legitimacy, highlighting the group’s sophisticated supply chain tactics. Kaspersky’s GReAT also found other npm packages related to this attack. Malicious npm packages could have been integrated into web development, cryptocurrency platforms, and enterprise software, risking widespread data theft and financial losses.
In 2024, a sophisticated backdoor was discovered in XZ Utils versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1, a widely used compression library in Linux distributions. Inserted by a trusted contributor, the malicious code targeted SSH servers, enabling remote command execution and threatening countless systems globally.
Detected before widespread exploitation due to performance anomalies, the incident highlighted the dangers of supply chain attacks. XZ Utils is integral to operating systems, cloud servers, and IoT devices, making its compromise a threat to critical infrastructure and enterprise networks.
In 2024, Kaspersky’s GReAT discovered that attackers uploaded malicious Python packages like chatgpt-python and chatgpt-wrapper to PyPI, mimicking legitimate tools for interacting with ChatGPT APIs.
These packages, designed to steal credentials and deploy backdoors, capitalised on the popularity of AI development to trick developers into downloading them. These packages could have been used in AI development, chatbot integrations, and data analytics platforms, endangering sensitive AI workflows and user data.
“Open-source software is the backbone of many modern solutions, but its openness is being weaponised. The 50% rise in malicious packages by the end of 2024 shows attackers are actively embedding sophisticated backdoors and data stealers in popular packages, which millions rely on.
“Without rigorous vetting and real-time monitoring, a single compromised package can trigger a global breach. Organisations need to secure the supply chain before the next XZ Utils-level attack succeeds,” comments Dmitry Galov, Head of Research Center for Russia and CIS at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team.
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into allegations that the confidentiality and integrity of candidates’ personal data may have been compromised by hackers.
The Commission initiated the inquiry following concerns over possible data breaches during examinations.
Preliminary findings indicate that several examination centres may not have implemented adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard candidates’ personal information, as required under data protection regulations.
Although the incident reportedly affected 379, 997 candidates, the NDPC’s investigation is poised to cover a systemic audit of data processing and third parties.
It will be recalled that JAMB recently admitted that a technical error on its platform affected a total of 379,997 candidates in 157 examination centres across Lagos and the South-East.
Further investigation led to the arrest of at least 20 suspects who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force.
Cyber security firm, Kaspersky, has once again warned that sophisticated cybercriminals increasingly target Africa as ransomware and advanced persistent threats (APTs) escalate across the region.
Speaking at the company’s annual Cyber Security Weekend for the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region, the cybersecurity firm’s Global Research and Analysis Team highlighted growing digital threats affecting African nations.
Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa emerged as hotspots, with Kenya recording one of the highest web threat incident rates at 20.1% in first quarter 2025.
“While ransomware is less prevalent in Africa due to lower levels of digitisation and economic constraints, countries like South Africa and Nigeria are seeing a sharp rise in attacks,” said Sergey Lozhkin, head of META and APAC regions at Kaspersky.
Kaspersky noted a 0.01 percentage point increase in African ransomware cases year-on-year, reaching 0.41%, still below global and Middle Eastern averages, but a troubling sign for the continent’s emerging digital infrastructure.
Experts warned that attackers are refining their tactics, shifting focus to unconventional entry points like IoT devices, smart appliances, and misconfigured hardware.
“As these economies expand digitally, sectors such as manufacturing, finance and government are becoming key targets,” said Lozhkin
The cyber-crime landscape is evolving quickly, fuelled by AI tools and dark web access to large language models, which enable less skilled actors to launch convincing phishing and malware campaigns.
Groups like FunkSec, which uses AI-generated code and a low-cost ransom model, are redefining ransomware operations.
“African organisations face the dual challenge of expanding digital footprints and limited cybersecurity awareness. This makes layered defense strategies, including network segmentation, real-time monitoring and regular staff training, essential,” stated Lozhkin
Kaspersky continues to monitor 25 active APT groups in the META region, including SideWinder and MuddyWater, some of which are known to target African institutions.
To bolster defenses, the firm recommends using tools such as its free Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business and the Kaspersky Next suite for threat visibility and response.
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