Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. has published its latest Threat Index for May 2016, revealing that the number of active global malware families increased by 15 percent in May 2016.

The May Threat Index presents a mixed view of Africa, with several countries making quite strong moves up and down the index – the higher their relative ranking in the index, the greater the threat of cyber-attack. There are four African countries in the top ten of the index, including Malawi who currently sits at third (improving by one position from the previous month). The others include Djibouti, Namibia and Angola. Just outside of the top ten, at eleventh, sits Botswana. There are 112 countries on the overall Index.

West African technology and economic hub, Nigeria is currently ranked 19^th – a significant improvement on April’s 11^th position. While, in a reversal of fortunes of sorts, east African powerhouse, Kenya shifted a massive 46 positions to sit at just 37^th.

Globally, Check Point detected 2,300 unique and active malware families attacking business networks in May. It was the second month running Check Point has observed an increase in the number of unique malware families, having previously reported a 50 percent increase from March to April. The continued rise in the number of active malware variants highlights the wide range of threats and scale of challenges security teams face in preventing an attack on their business critical information. Most notably:

• Banking malware Tinba became the fourth most prevalent form of infection last month in Kenya, and ninth in Nigeria. This Trojan allows hackers to steal victims’ credentials using web-injects, activated as users try to log-in to their banking website. Tinba ranked second in the overall international threat list. The top malware in Nigeria in May was also a financial threat. Gamarue is a modular bot that hides in trusted processes and can be used to harvest financial information.

• Attacks against mobile devices also remained a high priority as Android malware HummingBad persisted in the overall top 10 of malware attacks across all platforms during the period. In both Kenya and Nigeria, Hummingbad ranks as the fifth most common malware form. Despite only being discovered by Check Point researchers in February, it has rapidly become commonly used; indicating hackers view Android mobile devices as weak spots in enterprise security and as potentially high reward targets.

In May, Sality¹, Virut² and Conficker³ were the top malware families in Kenya, while Gamarue⁴, Sality and Dorkbot⁵featured in Nigeria’s top three.  Internationally, Conficker was the most prominent malware family, accounting for 14 percent of recognised attacks. The top ten families were responsible for 60 percent of all recognised attacks around the world.

1. Sality: Virus that allows remote operations and downloads of additional malware to infected systems by its operator. Its main goal is to persist in a system and provide means for remote control and installing further malware.
2. Virut: This is one of the top malware and botnet distributors in the Internet, and uses DDoS attacks, spam distribution, data theft and fraud methods. Spread through executables originating from infected devices, Virut alters the local host files and opens a backdoor to remote attackers via an IRC channel.
3. Conficker: machines infected by Conficker are controlled by a botnet.  It also disables security services, leaving computers even more vulnerable to other infections.
4. Gamarue: A modular bot with a loader, downloads additional modules and injects into trusted processes to hide. Infected machines can be harvested for financial credentials.
5. Dorkbot – IRC-based worm designed to allow remote code execution by its operator, as well as download additional malware to the infected system, with the primary motivation being to steal sensitive information and launch denial-of-service attacks.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that its strategy to fund capital intensive projects in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry has begun yielding fruits with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with some Chinese companies worth $50 billion for infrastructure development.

The corporation said in a statement in Abuja that the deal was part of recent landmark strides by its management to bridge the infrastructure funding gaps in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.

The companies involved in the deal include China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO Group), China Cinda Asset Management Company Limited (CINDA), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation/Addax petroleum (SINOPEC/ADDAX), International Chamber of Commerce/ China’s National Development and Reform Commission (ICC-NDRC), among others.

The corporation said the MoU was coming as a fall out from its on-going road show in China, would provide funding for investments in oil and gas infrastructure, pipelines, refineries, power, facility refurbishments and upstream sector.

MTN Nigeria has won the frequency spectrum license for the 2.6GHz band as the sole bidder in the auction exercise by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

MTN said the 10-year license will guarantee superior performance for wireless networks, especially 4G LTE services, including the roll-out of broadband internet services across the country, starting in the major cities of Lagos and Abuja.

Although Nigeria is one of 28 African countries currently offering 4G LTE services, the rate of penetration has been restricted to a few major cities.

But, with the acquisition of the license at about N18.96 billion, MTN said in a statement on Wednesday that its success was “a big boost to its plan to deliver global mobile broadband and LTE 4G services to over 60 million customers in Nigeria”.

The company said it was also planning to deploy FDD networks in addition to its existing WIMAX over TDD networks, to ensure for greater consistency with existing 2G and 3G deployments.

MTN Nigeria CEO, Ferdi Moolman, said with the 2.6 GHz band, the company will roll out immediately to provide the full range of LTE services to Nigerians, empowering Nigeria with the latest mobile broadband technology.

The NCC has described the spectrum as a significant trigger for a broadband revolution that would ensure greater coverage, access, affordability and innovation for the customers.

“We are very pleased with this development (award of the license) at this time, which is a further step in the right direction for Nigeria,” Mr. Moolman said. “Indeed, MTN is fully aligned and supports the NCC’s objective to deliver broadband services to present and future generations of subscribers, in line with the National Broadband Plan of 2013.”

“This license acquisition further demonstrates MTN’s abiding faith in the future of Nigeria and the resilience of the Nigerian economy. MTN continues to believe in Nigeria and we have expressed this belief in the level of our investment, which currently stands at approximately USD 15 billion and counting.”

He said MTN strongly believed there was need for significant levels of investment in broadband infrastructure and services to truly launch Nigeria into the information age.

In addition to aggressive investment, he said MTN has also built the most extensive private fibre optics superhighway in Africa and the Middle East, covering approximately 16,000 kilometres.

“Our subscribers, especially those in clustered areas such as the major cities, can expect distinct improvements in browsing speed, quality and experience, including fast access to high definition video streaming, as well as conferencing and calling, lag-free music streaming, and improved data uploads and downloads,” Mr. Moolman said.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin advises waiting until you’ve gained some traction before setting up in such an expensive area.

“During the boom cycles, the expectations around the costs — real estate, salaries — the expectations people and employees have … it can be hard to make a scrappy initial business that’s self-sustaining,” he said. “Whereas in other parts of the world you might have an easier time for that.”