by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG – EIGHT African countries are among the top 20 countries most targeted by malware practitioners.
Ethiopia continues to occupy the number one spot as the most targeted country of the 107 involved in the Check Point survey.
Others on the continent include Zimbabwe, which is the third most targeted globally, with a Normalised Risk Index of 85 percent, followed by Mozambique (9th) with an index of 67 percent.
Angola and Nigeria are 11th and 12th respectively, with an index of 66 percent and 66.2 percent.
Ghana, Kenya and Uganda were ranked 17th, 18th and 19th respectively, with indexes of 62,9 percent, 60,5 percent and 60,2 percent.
This month, Check Point researchers uncovered a sophisticated multi-stage malware campaign delivering AgentTesla, Remcos, and Xloader (a FormBook evolution).
The attack begins with phishing emails disguised as order confirmations and lures victims into opening a malicious 7-Zip archive. This archive contains a JScript Encoded (.JSE) file that launches a Base64-encoded PowerShell script, which executes a second-stage .NET or AutoIt-based executable. The final malware is injected into legitimate Windows processes such as RegAsm.exe or RegSvcs.exe, significantly increasing stealth and detection evasion.
“This latest campaign exemplifies the growing complexity of cyber threats,” Lotem Finkelstein, Director of Threat Intelligence at Check Point Software, commented
“Attackers are layering encoded scripts, legitimate processes, and obscure execution chains to remain undetected. What we once considered low-tier malware is now weaponized in advanced operations.”
Finkelstein advised organisations to adopt a prevention-first approach that integrated real-time threat intelligence, artificial intelligence and behavioral analytics.
Globally, the Education, Government and Telecommunications sectors are most targeted by malware.
