Cyberattacks have increased worldwide, and West Africa has been affected like the rest of the globe. Nigeria, Guinea, and Ghana have been reported as the most targeted countries by DDoS attacks in West Africa.
DDoS attacks can be directed toward industries like computing and telecommunications, and DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service, which involves high-volume disruption of services.
Among these three countries, Ghana experienced the highest number of DDoS attacks in the first half of 2024.
According to NETSCOUT’s 1H2024 DDoS Threat Intelligence Report, Ghana faced a total of 4,753 attacks over six months, 2,759 of which targeted computing services.
Ghana also recorded the largest DDoS attack in West Africa during this period, with a maximum bandwidth reaching 314.25 Mbps.
Guinea ranked second in West Africa in terms of DDoS attack frequency, with 2,918 attacks. Wireless telecommunications carriers were the most targeted by these attacks.
Nigeria, with 2,721 attacks, came in third in West Africa. Various fields, including computer services, beauty salons, and data processing and hosting companies, were affected by these attacks.
Bryan Hamman, NETSCOUT’s regional director for Africa, commented on these attacks:
“The growing complexity of DDoS threats seen worldwide, including a notable increase in both attack frequency and sophistication, is clearly reflected in Nigeria.”
“The country experienced more complex attacks than others within the region, with 23 different attack vectors seen in one single attack, from TCP and CLDAP (Connection-less Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) attacks to Domain Name System (DNS) amplification and many more.”
It remains to be seen how West Africa will improve its cybersecurity measures over time. While technological advancement may bring some negative impacts, it can also lead to positive outcomes.
