E-Business
The Evolving Threat Landscape: Top Cybercrime Trends Organisations Should Take Note of in 2023
By Emmanuel Asika
The cyber threat landscape continued to evolve last year, with malevolent players joining forces more than ever before, exchanging access to networks and systems, sharing malware and sharpening their attack methods.
Such heightened collaboration, coupled with the low cost of malware – three-quarters of malware kits cost less than ₦7,000 – are further triggering cybercrime to be more accessible.
The implication being that more devices and end-users will be vulnerable to being under attack in 2023, and as cyber criminals intensify attempts to access enterprises – these systems, PCs and printers will be at the forefront.
These challenges, for cyber-security experts, will be intensified by the growing economic slump and uncertainties. As cybersecurity spending is set to increase by 13.2% in 2023, cost projections will be under critical observation, with emphasis on the most important cybersecurity demands.
With tough impending decisions, below are four cybersecurity trends that institutions must plan for in 2023:
- Increasing costs can prompt an inflow of cyber hustlers and money mules, powering the cybercrime economy and leaving users at risk
The increase in the cybercrime gig economy, with its swing to platform-based business models, has made cybercrime simpler, affordable, and more dynamic.
Cybercrime devices and mentoring services are readily available at low costs, luring cyber hustlers – adherents with little technical skill – to access needed information to make gains.
With an impending global downturn, easy access to cybercrime tools and skills could enhance the number of scam SMS messages and emails filling our inboxes.
Lured by the potential of quick money, there is a likelihood of seeing more recruits into money-muling schemes, unintentionally encouraging the cybercrime ecosystem as enablers of fraudulent transactions, money laundering, and perhaps ransoms payments.
The interrelated nature of the cybercrime gig economy means that threat actors can easily make money from email compromise attacks.
If they find a victim and succeed by compromising an enterprise device, they can market that access to bigger ransomware gangs. This gives structured groups of hackers more reach, hence feeding into the cybercrime ecosystem.
With increasing attacks against users, embedding security in all devices from the hardware will be significant to prevent, detect and recover from attacks.
Adopting a robust security culture is key for building resilience, however, only when combined with technology that decreases an organization’s attack interface. A whole group of threats can be eradicated without relying on detection by isolating risky activities like malicious emails.
Threat containment technologies in this case ensure that if a user opens a malicious link or attachment, the malware can’t infect any data. With this model, businesses reduce the propensity of malicious attacks and protect employee interests without compromising their workflows.
- Notorious hackers will invest in more attacks below the operating system.
Until recently, firmware attacks were only used by sophisticated threat groups and countries.
However, just last year, early signs revealed an increased interest and development of attacks below the operating system – from tools to hack BIOS passwords, to rootkits and trojans targeting device’s firmware. Today, we now see firmware rootkits advertised relatively cheaply on cybercrime marketplaces.
As one would expect, sophisticated threat actors are always looking to stay one step ahead in terms of their attack capabilities. Unfortunately, firmware security is frequently disregarded by organizations, giving room for adversaries to attack and exploit.
Access to the firmware level allows attackers to gain persistent control and hide below the operating system, making them very hard to detect – let alone remove and remediate.
As such, organizations and individuals must ensure they understand industry best practices and standards for device hardware and firmware security.
Additionally, organizations must further endeavour to understand and evaluate the latest technology readily available to protect, detect and recover from firmware attacks.
- Remote access equipment will be on the forefront for attacks
Session hijacking is anticipated. The year will witness a growth in popularity – where an attacker hijacks a remote access session to obtain an organisation’s sensitive data and systems.
The user is characteristically unsuspecting that anything malicious has happened and takes milliseconds to inject key sequences and issue commands that generate an alternative gateway for persistent access.
It works even if Privileged Access Management (PAM) systems employ Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), such as smart cards.
When a malicious attack links to Operational Technology (OT) and Industrial Control Systems (ICS) running factories and industrial plants, there could also be a noticeable impact on operational readiness and safety – possibly cutting off access to energy or communication for entire areas.
The only way of preventing these kinds of attacks is breaking the attack chain and strong isolation technology, either through using a physically separate system, like a Privileged Access Workstation (PAW), or virtual separation, via hypervisor-based approaches.
- Neglect print security at your risk in 2023
Presently, print security is endangered by the constant tendency to be a neglected factor of the total cybersecurity environment and with more printers connected to corporate networks due to hybrid working, the risks keep increasing. Institutions need to structure security policies and processes for monitoring and protecting print gadgets from attacks, at home and in the workplace.
The challenge is the risk telemetry coming from end points, including printers, is growing by the day. Consequently, we will see institutions concentrate investments on solutions and services delivery that provide functional intelligence rather than merely delivering more security data.
Tackling increasing threats
This year, organisations must be intentional with their security approaches. Often, security glitches start at the endpoint, hence, by embedding protection in these devices, businesses can lessen the burden on their security unit.
Regardless of the threats institutions face in 2023, it is apparent that the tactics we deploy to protect devices and data has to change.
The key consideration here is strategic resource allocation, and the security teams need to recognise the specific areas of the business that are most susceptible to threats, and that would be most impacted in the event of a breach.
It is also vital to have a layered approach to security which will allow institutions to execute isolation, gain actionable intelligence, isolation and more, whilst helping to lessen their attack surface and maintain safety of key data.
Emmanuel Asika is Country Head for Nigeria, at HP
Nigeria’s weak data protection guardrails may undermine the recent directive by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to banks, fintech firms, and other payment service providers to store payment transaction data generated within the country local servers.
CBN said that the new rule will start from January 1, 2027, as part of new measures to strengthen oversight of the fast-growing digital payments ecosystem.
This will also provide the country greater control over critical data infrastructure, allowing authorities to easily access records, conduct audits, enforce compliance, and investigate, especially in cases where criminal offenses are involved, reducing delays often caused by intermediation between local and foreign entities.
Apart from data sovereignty, the CBN added that moving transaction records from foreign servers will help drive investments in local data centers and cloud storage capacity.
Though reliable estimates are hard to come by, it is believed that Nigeria loses over N60 billion in hosting data in foreign servers.
But a coalition of civil society organizations (CSOs), has raised concerns over safety measures in place to protect data of Nigerians, despite having data protection laws in place.
The coalition, comprising Media Rights Agenda, Paradigm Initiative, Digital Rights Lawyers Initiative, and Accountability Lab Nigeria, among others, released the “Protected From the State, Not By It: Nigeria’s Data Protection Crisis Is a Crisis of Implementation,” where they criticized regulators’ failure to effectively enforce data protection laws, which led to rising cases of digital fraud and rampant illegal sale of sensitive information.
There have been leaks of sensitive voter, financial, and personal records.
For instance, there was alleged unauthorized access to the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) database of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during a nationwide CVR exercise.
INEC earlier released the preliminary findings of its investigation into the matter, saying that it found no external breach of its systems and that the personal information of over 90 million registered voters was not compromised.
Despite this, CSOs argued that the incident underscored the lack of oversight, adding that it showed that while data privacy laws are in place, sensitive information can be easily moved from a secure government database and into the hands of private political entities.
The coalition also pointed out regulators’ failure to conduct human rights impact assessments on public surveillance systems before related programs were deployed, urging the government to act on these issues by subjecting public institutions to the same compliance requirements as private organizations.
“This is the asymmetry at the heart of the crisis: citizens are under-protected from data abuse and over-exposed to state monitoring and punishment,” the CSOs stated.
Additional report by coingeek
Visa, a multinational firm into payment card services says Artificial intelligence enabled scams have emerged as the fastest-growing source of consumer payment fraud globally as cybercriminals increasingly target people.
Visa stated this in its Mid-year 2026 Biannual Threats Report released on Wednesday in Lagos.
The report said scammers were increasingly using AI tools and social engineering tactics to manipulate consumers into authorising fraudulent payments themselves.Premier League Fixtures
It indicated that from July to December 2025, Visa identified nearly one billion dollars in scam-related activity, making scams the largest category of consumer payment fraud.
According to the report, fraudsters now impersonate trusted brands and institutions, create a sense of urgency and deceive victims into completing seemingly legitimate transactions.
The report said stronger network-level security had reduced opportunities for direct system compromises, forcing criminals to shift their focus to exploiting human trust.
It revealed that fraud involving device tokens declined by 9.6 per cent between July and December 2025, compared with the same period in 2024.
The report identified accelerating scams, growing use of AI in fraud, migration of attacks from technology to people, and evolving ransomware trends as key developments shaping payment security.
It stated that global ransomware activity rose by 26 per cent during the review period compared with the corresponding period in 2024.
However, only 23 per cent of ransomware victims paid ransoms, the lowest level on record, reflecting improved resilience and recovery capabilities, according to the report.
Commenting, Mr Paul Fabara, chief Risk and Client Services officer, Visa, said that payments at network level continued to get safer, but threats were evolving faster than ever
Fabara said criminals were increasingly using deception, urgency and AI-enabled tools to exploit trust, requiring stronger collaboration across the payments ecosystem.
Also, Andrew Uaboi, vice president and Cluster head, Visa West Africa, said AI had significantly lowered the barriers to entry for fraudsters.
“What once required deep technical skill can now be executed with a prompt,” Uaboi said.
He said intelligence-driven defence and coordinated action across the ecosystem were becoming increasingly critical to protecting consumers from emerging threats.
Kaspersky has released its Sustainability Report for 2024–2025, outlining how the company is working toward a safer and more resilient digital future.
The report reflects Kaspersky’s broader commitment to responsible business — protecting people and organisations from cyberthreats, supporting law enforcement cooperation, investing in secure technologies, and helping strengthen the digital resilience of societies and economies.
In 2024-2025, the company continued advancing digital sustainability and strengthening global cyber resilience, reducing thedisruption, financial losses and social risks caused by cyber incidents, and enabling safer and more stable conditions for digital adoption across economies and societies.
Over the period, the number of detected advanced persistent threat (APT) groups and operations has increased significantly — by 74% compared to 2023, supported by intelligence gathered through five dedicated Expertise Centers.
Building a safer cyberworld
A significant part of Kaspersky’s social impact comes from the company’s cooperation with global law enforcement agencies. During the reporting period, the company contributed to joint operations with INTERPOL and AFRIPOL that resulted in the arrest of more than 2,600 suspected cybercriminals.
From a sustainability perspective, this shrinks the opportunities attackers can exploit — making digital environments safer for governments, businesses and individuals, and lowering the long-term economic and social costs associated with cyber incidents.
During the reporting period, Kaspersky formalised its collaborations with AFRIPOL, signing a five-year cooperation agreement, and delivered cybersecurity training to law enforcement representatives from 23 African countries, covering the fundamentals of Security Operations Center (SOC) operations and advanced threat hunting techniques.
This capacity-building work has a compounding effect: as local teams become more capable of independently detecting and responding to threats, the overall resilience of the digital ecosystem increases, while the cost and duration of cyber incidents decrease over time.
Implementing future tech
To effectively protect people, businesses and public institutions from evolving cyberthreats, Kaspersky constantly improves its security solutions and conducts cybersecurity research to stay one step ahead of attackers.
In 2024–2025 the company was granted 155 patents, including 135 AI-related ones. Its global R&D team of around 3,000 employees also produced 373 research publications. Together, these efforts help advance the baseline of secure technologies available to the market.
This reduces systemic vulnerability in digital infrastructure and supports more stable technological adoption at scale.
Responsible innovation frameworks further reinforce this effect. By joining the European Commission’s AI Pact and supporting the UN Global Digital Compact, Kaspersky has aligned its development practices with emerging global governance standards.
This contributes to sustainability by helping reduce the risks of unsafe AI deployment, such as misuse, bias or system exploitation, which could otherwise undermine trust in digital transformation.
The company’s Cyber Immunity approach, implemented through KasperskyOS, adds another layer of long-term sustainability impact by shifting security from reactive protection to architectural resilience.
Instead of repeatedly patching vulnerabilities, systems are designed to be inherently resistant to compromise, which reduces maintenance overhead, lifecycle risk and resource inefficiency in securing digital environments.
Among the new product launches, the Kaspersky eSIM Store expanded the company’s offering beyond cybersecurity into mobile connectivity. By reducing reliance on physical SIM cards and making global mobile access more seamless, the solution supports more sustainable travel and digital lifestyles.
Together with that, Kaspersky also released Kaspersky Cloud Workload Security for protecting cloud workloads wherever they reside: on servers or virtual machines, or in private, public, or hybrid clouds, etc.
“At Kaspersky, we see cybersecurity not only as a technology issue, but as a social one. Every day, people rely on digital services to work, communicate, study, receive services and manage their lives and they need to be able to do this safely.
“That is why our sustainability agenda starts with our core expertise: protecting people, organisations and critical systems from cyberthreats. But it also goes further — through responsible innovation, transparency, partnerships and support for communities.
“This report shows how our technologies, research and cooperation with partners translate into practical impact: fewer risks, stronger resilience and a safer digital environment for everyone,” said Maria Losyukova, Head of ESG & Sustainability at Kaspersky.
FCMB Turns Normal Banking into Rewards with New Mobile App Upgrade
Despite Warnings, FG Draws Down $1.5Bn as First Tranche of FAB $5Bn Loan Deal
PalmPay Strengthens Data Protection Culture with Employee Privacy Workshop and Privacy Champions Programme
Paystack Unveils AI-powered Payments Tools
NRS, CITN Deepen Partnership to Strengthen Tax Awareness
CBN Extends PoS Geo-Fencing Enforcement Deadline to August 2026
London Strengthens Global Investment Ties with Africa @ First Ever London-Africa Business Summit
FG Targets Alleged N3tn Capital Flight, Opens Airtime Credit Market to Nigerian Fintechs
Mobile Internet Gender Gap Widest in Africa – GSMA
Japan, UNESCO Boost Digital Learning in 15 CoEs with Donation of ICT Equipment
Telecom2 days ago6 Easy Ways to Enjoy the 2026 World Cup with Google and Gemini
News2 days agoMTN ASAP Enugu Stakeholders’ Conference Rallies More Action Against Youth Drug Abuse, Unveils N33Bn ASAP Impact
E-Financial2 days agoEFCC, CAC Raise Concerns over Unregistered PoS Operators
E-Financial2 days agoProvidus, Unity Bank Begin Integration Phase after Supreme Court Nod
E-Financial2 days agoFG Proposes Africa-Wide Payment Card without Conversion through US Dollar
Telecom2 days agoNITDA, Meta Roll Out New Programme to Keep Nigerian Youths Safe Online
Telecom2 days agoNCC Launches Maiden Women’s Leadership Mentorship Programme
E-Financial1 day agoNRS, CITN Deepen Partnership to Strengthen Tax Awareness