Cyber security companies have warned South Africans to remain vigilant online. Picture: EPA
Pretoria - Cyber security companies have warned South Africans to remain vigilant online when they go about getting the best deals from the Black Friday specials, now extended into the festive season.
Many have been busy with their last-minute shopping as the festive season is in full swing, but so too are criminals.
A study using aggregated data from Surfshark Antivirus showed that there was a noticeable 16.94% rise in cyber threats in South Africa a week leading up to Black Friday last month.
The research showed South Africa had a threat rate of 13 threats per 100 scan cycles, especially during the month leading up to Black Friday, with the most common threats being riskware and viruses.
“The holiday shopping season starting with Black Friday is not only beneficial for the retailers, but cybercriminals too. People searching for gifts and deals online during the period of huge discounts are more likely to click on suspicious links, download malicious files, and infect their devices,” said Nedas Kazlauskas, antivirus product owner at Surfshark.
Kazlauskas said South Africa had experienced a 17% threat rate increase during the week leading to Black Friday. However, it was not alone, as countries such as Romania, Australia, Lithuania, Belgium and Germany had also seen high rates of cybercrime.
According to the research, Romania had seen a spike of 4 349%, Australia 275%, Lithuania 95%, Belgium 440% and Germany 75% week-over-week since the festive season began.
Europe was reportedly the most affected in the month leading up to Black Friday. This trend, however, did not start this month, as it was reported that common cyber threats had started mid-October.
Since October 17, the latest weekly global scans showed that, on average, 10 riskware threats were found per 100 scans, with some malware multiplying after infiltrating a device.
“Hackers use malware to corrupt or delete files, steal money and personal data, copy passwords, or take control of specific programs. The most common ways for malware to be installed are phishing emails, corrupt attachments, suspicious downloads, unfamiliar links and malicious websites, added Kazlauska.
SAPS will be deploying 10 000 constables from December 13.
The announcement was made by the Police Ministry as it kicked off its holiday season operations inspection roadshow in Limpopo yesterday.
The constables, who will graduate next week as part of the #Project10 000 officers initiative, will be deployed to various stations, units and service points to bolster capacity and enhance police visibility.
Pretoria News