The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) on Thursday published a report that indicated a sudden rise in the number of online abuse cases reported.
CA defined online abuse to be any type of abuse that happens on the web, whether through social networks such as Facebook, playing online games or using mobile phones.
In the period studied by CA, incident reports multiplied 10 times from 140 in October 2017 to 1,757 in December of the same year.
The most common form of misuse reported during the sudden jump period was online fraud, closely followed by hate speech, incitement to violence and fake news.
[caption caption="Kenyans using computers at a workplace"]
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CA further reported that between January 2018 and March 2018, 7.9 million complaints on cyber threats were lodged with the National Computer Incident Response Team and Coordination Centre (CIRT/CC).
Following the sudden spike in online crimes, CA officials relayed that intervention measures were underway, in line with the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Bill 2018 signed into law by President Uhuru Kenyatta in May 2018.
According to the law, those found guilty may be fined up to Ksh20 Million for the crimes, including the crimes of distribution of obscene images, child pornography and cyberterrorism.
The authority, however, noted a drop in the number of cases reported relating to computer malware from 7.89 million to 5.69 million.
Attacks registered in web apps rose slightly to 1.25 million from 1.23 million.
"During the period under review, the highest number of cyber threats targeted file sharing, web service and Voice over IP (VoIP) applications," CA noted.
[caption caption="President Uhuru Kenyatta with other officials when he approved the Tax Laws (Amendment) Bill on July 18, 2018"]
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