E-Business
Cyberattacks on Young Gamers up 57% in 2022

Kaspersky experts have discovered cybercriminals launched more than 7 million attacks on children exploiting popular game titles in 2022, a 57% increase compared to 2021.
Kaspersky’s latest report The Dark Side of Kids’ Virtual Gaming Worlds explores the risks for young players in online gaming and analyses threats related to the most popular online games for 3-16-year-old children. Phishing pages used by cybercriminals to target young players mostly mimicked global titles including Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite, and Apex Legends games.
To reach parents’ devices, cybercriminals purposely create fake game sites evoking children’s interest to follow phishing pages and download malicious files.
In 2022, over 230,000 gamers globally encountered malware and potentially unwanted applications that were disguised as popular children’s games.
Since children of this age often do not have their own computers and play from their parents’ devices, the threats spread by cybercriminals are most likely aimed at obtaining credit card data and credentials of parents.
According to Kaspersky statistics, phishing pages used by cybercriminals to target young players primarily mimicked Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite, and Apex Legends games. In total, over 878,000 phishing pages were created for these four games in 2022.
One of the most common social engineering techniques targeting young players involves offers to download popular cheats and mods for games. On a phishing site the user may get a whole manual on how to install the cheat properly.
There are specific instructions making a point about the need to disable the antivirus before installing a file. This may not alert young players, but it might be specifically created so malware avoids detection on the infected device.
The longer the user’s antivirus is disabled, the more information might be collected from the victim’s computer.
“In 2022, cybercriminals even exploited games designed for 3-8-year-old children. This highlights that cybercriminals do not filter their targets by age and attack even the youngest gamers, with the likely target of reaching their parents’ devices.
“When focusing on young players, cybercriminals don’t even bother to make deception schemes less obvious. They hope children and teenagers have little or no experience or knowledge of cybercriminal traps and will easily fall for even the most primitive scams.
“Therefore, parents need to be especially careful about what apps their children download, whether their devices have trusted security solutions installed and should teach their children about how to behave online,” comments Vasily M. Kolesnikov, a security expert at Kaspersky.
E-Business
NDPC Probes Suspected Data Breach in Examination Centres

Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into allegations that the confidentiality and integrity of candidates’ personal data may have been compromised by hackers.
The Commission initiated the inquiry following concerns over possible data breaches during examinations.
Preliminary findings indicate that several examination centres may not have implemented adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard candidates’ personal information, as required under data protection regulations.
Although the incident reportedly affected 379, 997 candidates, the NDPC’s investigation is poised to cover a systemic audit of data processing and third parties.
It will be recalled that JAMB recently admitted that a technical error on its platform affected a total of 379,997 candidates in 157 examination centres across Lagos and the South-East.
Further investigation led to the arrest of at least 20 suspects who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force.
E-Business
Nigeria Among Hotspots as Kaspersky Warns of Rising Ransomware Threat in Africa

Cyber security firm, Kaspersky, has once again warned that sophisticated cybercriminals increasingly target Africa as ransomware and advanced persistent threats (APTs) escalate across the region.
Speaking at the company’s annual Cyber Security Weekend for the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region, the cybersecurity firm’s Global Research and Analysis Team highlighted growing digital threats affecting African nations.
Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa emerged as hotspots, with Kenya recording one of the highest web threat incident rates at 20.1% in first quarter 2025.
“While ransomware is less prevalent in Africa due to lower levels of digitisation and economic constraints, countries like South Africa and Nigeria are seeing a sharp rise in attacks,” said Sergey Lozhkin, head of META and APAC regions at Kaspersky.
Kaspersky noted a 0.01 percentage point increase in African ransomware cases year-on-year, reaching 0.41%, still below global and Middle Eastern averages, but a troubling sign for the continent’s emerging digital infrastructure.
Experts warned that attackers are refining their tactics, shifting focus to unconventional entry points like IoT devices, smart appliances, and misconfigured hardware.
“As these economies expand digitally, sectors such as manufacturing, finance and government are becoming key targets,” said Lozhkin
The cyber-crime landscape is evolving quickly, fuelled by AI tools and dark web access to large language models, which enable less skilled actors to launch convincing phishing and malware campaigns.
Groups like FunkSec, which uses AI-generated code and a low-cost ransom model, are redefining ransomware operations.
“African organisations face the dual challenge of expanding digital footprints and limited cybersecurity awareness. This makes layered defense strategies, including network segmentation, real-time monitoring and regular staff training, essential,” stated Lozhkin
Kaspersky continues to monitor 25 active APT groups in the META region, including SideWinder and MuddyWater, some of which are known to target African institutions.
To bolster defenses, the firm recommends using tools such as its free Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business and the Kaspersky Next suite for threat visibility and response.
E-Business
Nigeria Launches Cybercrime Team with Commonwealth, UK Support

Nigeria recently launched a new joint case team to step up its response to cybercrimes that affect people and businesses at home and abroad.
The ‘Joint Case Team on Cybercrime’ brings together Nigeria’s key justice and security agencies to work as one, making it easier to detect, investigate, and prosecute digital offences.
It is supported by the UK National Crime Agency, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the Commonwealth Secretariat, as part of a wider effort to promote international cooperation on cybercrime.
Speaking at the launch in Abuja, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN, minister of justice and attorney general of the federation described the initiative as “a bold and transformative stride in Nigeria’s justice system.”
He said that although Nigeria has a national legal framework to address cyber offences, laws alone are not enough.
Nigeria is among the countries most affected by cybercrime around the world, with increasing financial losses.
- E-Business2 days ago
Nigeria Launches Cybercrime Team with Commonwealth, UK Support
- Telecom2 days ago
Telecom Subscribers Decline By 43m in One Year
- Telecom2 days ago
NCC Orders Telcos to Compensate Subscribers for Outages More than 24 Hours
- E-Financial2 days ago
SERAP Drags CBN to Court over Alleged Failure to Disclose LG Allocations
- General News2 days ago
HEDA Sues FG, Oil Giants over Alleged Unlawful Oil Licence Transfer
- Telecom2 days ago
IHS Nigeria, NSCDC Partner to Protect Telecoms Infrastructure
- Telecom1 day ago
Engr. Ikechukwu Nnamani Receives Two Prestigious @ABoICT Awards
- E-Financial1 day ago
EFCC Recovers over N20Bn Stolen by Hackers from 6 Banks in Nigeria