Browsing: Investing in cyber security

In this column called “The Indicator,” we will be taking an economic or financial statistic from East Africa and breaking it down into bite-sized nuggets of knowledge for investors. 

This month’s indicator figure is 597,028,294 

597,028,294 what? 

597,028,294 US dollars is the projected cumulative annual cost of cyber security attacks across East African Community (EAC) countries for 2020 as extrapolated from a 2017 study “Demystifying Africa’s Cyber Security Line”.   

What is a cyber security attack?  

A cyber security attack often called a “hack” is when a nefarious individual or group uses a computer to invade the computer or the computing network of a person or company. 

Cyber attacks can come from external attackers such as cybercriminals seeking to steal money, damage the reputation, or block access to computing resources in order to extort ransom money from a company.   Cyber attacks can also come from “insiders” — frustrated current or former