AI-fueled cyberattacks are increasingly targeting entities across Africa, according to Robert Lemos at Dark Reading.
Lemos cites two recent reports from Microsoft and Group-IB that warned of a rise in attacks targeting African organizations, with threat actors using AI to assist in various steps of the attack chain.
“Overall, deepfake-related fraud has nearly tripled in the past year, with voice scams driving the growth in generative AI attacks, according to threat intelligence firm Group-IB,” Lemos writes. “Meanwhile, phishing is the most common attack against African organizations, with attackers using AI to produce native-sounding messages and automate campaigns to achieve a 54% click-through rate — 4.5 times higher than traditional methods, according to Microsoft.”
Kerissa Varma, Chief Security Advisor for Africa at Microsoft, explained that threat actors are using AI to tailor phishing attacks for specific regions and cultural contexts, allowing them to write fluent messages in different languages.
“Africa is increasingly being targeted by identity-based and AI-driven threats — and AI has significantly reduced the time attackers need for reconnaissance,” Varma said. “AI-generated content is flooding digital spaces, overwhelming traditional detection systems and enabling deepfake-enabled fraud, voice cloning, and the creation of synthetic identities at scale.”
Researchers at Group-IB found that Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, and South Africa are the most frequently targeted countries. Group-IB’s CEO Dmitry Volkov stated, “Overall, AI is amplifying both the scale and credibility of social engineering and fraud campaigns in the region. Organizations must evolve their detection, authentication, and awareness strategies to keep pace with this new wave of AI-driven threats.”
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