EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Sector Statistics Report for the First Quarter of the 2019/20 Financial Year provides an overview of the performance and trends of the ICT sector for the period 1^st July to 30^th  September 2019, on the following service categories:

• Mobile Telephony Services
• Fixed Telephony Services
• Data/Internet Services
• Postal and Courier Services

Furthermore, the report gives us the cyber threat statistics as detected by cyber threat detection systems deployed by National KE-CIRT/CC, which is what we are going to focus on.

INTERNET SERVICES

According to a recent report from the content delivery network Akamai, which collects data from more 130 countries, Kenya has the world’s 14th-fastest mobile internet speed.

At 13.7 megabits per second, Kenya’s average data connection speed in the first quarter of 2017 was almost twice as fast as the global average. Kenya also beats the United States, ranked 28th with an average speed of 10.7 mbps, and South Korea, home to the fastest average speed in fixed internet connection.

And from the CAK’s Sector Statistics report 1^st July to 30^th September 2019, The Internet market in Kenya has continued to exhibit positive growth over past years. Some of the factors contributing to this growth include increasing population coverage of 3G and 4G networks, availability of affordable smartphones and data plans, and increasing consumption of e-commerce, e-government, social media and other online content.

During the quarter under review, the total data/Internet subscriptions rose by 4.1 per cent to 52.0 million, from 49.9 million reported in the previous quarter. Mobile data subscriptions accounted for 99.3 of total data subscriptions.

But with technology comes cyber threats.

NATIONAL CYBER THREAT LANDSCAPE

Cyber Threats Statistics

The National KE-CIRT/CC has deployed various cyber threat detection systems towards enhancing Kenya’s national cyber security readiness and resilience. During the period July – September 2019, the National KE-CIRT/CC detected 25.2-million cyber threat events as compared to 26.6 million cyber threat events detected in the period April – June 2019.

This was a 5.2 percent decrease attributed to a huge reduction in DDoS/Botnet attacks as a result of proactive action taken, as demonstrated by increased number of cyber threat advisories issued during the quarter.

Cyber Threat	Jul-Sep 19	Apr-Jun 19	Quarterly Variation (%)
Totals	25,211,269	26,604,202	-5.2
Malware	20,540,231	21,137,458	-2.8
DDOS/Botnet	573,421	2,353,460	-75.6
Web Application Attacks	4,069,671	3,084,687	31.9
System vulnerabilities	27,946	28,597	-2.3

As the trusted national point of contact on cyber security matters, the National KE-CIRT/CC analyzed the cyber threat events and issued cyber threat advisories to the affected critical information infrastructure service providers. During the quarter under review, the National KECIRT/CC issued 17,127 advisories, which is a 4.8 percent increase from the 16,347 advisories sent out in the previous period of April – June 2019.

Cyber Threat	Jul-Sep 19	Apr-Jun 19	Quarterly Variation (%)
Totals	17,127	16,347	4.8
Malware	2,160	1,586	36.2
Botnet	318	88	261.4
Web Application Attacks	291	387	-24.8
System vulnerabilities	13,897	13,754	1.0
Others	461	532	-13.3

CONCLUSION

With technology and fast internet comes innovation and over the past half-decade, Kenya has emerged — seemingly from nowhere — as a hotbed of innovation in the area of mobile money-transfer systems and for other types of software and services for mobile devices. And it being a hot bed of innovation has also made it a hot bed of cyber-attacks and threats. One of the major attacks is fraud. For several years now, cash has been disappearing at an alarming rate across the nation of Kenya.

But we can see that with the deployment of cyber threat detection systems and the increase in the issuance of cyber threat advisories by National KE-CIRT/CC, cyber threats detected has dropped. As much as this is commendable, we still have a long way to go as a country.