Nigerian organisations are taking the hardest hit in Africa, facing an average of 4,200 cyberattacks per week, according to Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.’s African Perspectives on Cyber Security Report 2025.
This is a significant jump, being 60% higher than the global average of 1,963 attacks and surpassing Africa’s continental average of 3,153.
Country Manager for West Africa at Check Point, Kingsley Oseghale, said attackers are increasingly using AI to automate phishing, impersonation, and cloud exploitation.
Key sectors being targeted include finance, energy, telecoms, and government, with threats like identity-led intrusions, AI-generated phishing, and multi-vector ransomware on the rise.
Across the continent, Check Point identified key trends in different markets. Nigeria is experiencing business email compromise and cloud exploitation; South Africa faces rising ransomware, smishing, and botnet infections such as Vo1d and XorDDoS; Kenya has seen ransomware targeting critical energy infrastructure; and Morocco has experienced coordinated government and education-sector disruptions via DDoS and website defacement attacks.
The report highlighted five major shifts in Africa’s cyber risk landscape for 2025, including the evolution of ransomware into data-leak extortion and AI-generated deception.
Meanwhile, with regulations like the EU’s NIS2 Directive, weak cybersecurity now impacts international market access, making digital resilience crucial.
Check Point urges African businesses and governments to adopt prevention-first security strategies, focusing on continuous risk assessment, regulatory readiness, and collaboration.
“The real challenge isn’t adopting new tech, but securing the trust behind it,” says Kingsley Oseghale, West Africa Country Manager at Check Point.