This week’s IS news roundup comes from Africa. Let’s delve into the Global Cybersecurity Index report and see where African countries rank on it, and explore the details of a serious data breach in Cameroon.

The International Telecommunication Union’s recently released Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) ranked the cybersecurity of 193 countries across five tiers, from Tier 1 (“Role Modeling”) to Tier 5 (“Building”). Most countries—105—were categorized into Tier 3 (“Establishing”) and Tier 4 (“Evolving”). On the one hand, this indicates significant progress in digital services; on the other hand, it demonstrates a need for stronger cybersecurity all over the world.

The GCI report recognized five African countries as "Role Modelling" and ranked under Tier 1. Here is the least of the leaders:

• Ghana
• Kenya
• Mauritius
• Rwanda
• Tanzania.

Meanwhile, Cameroon, a country categorized into Tier 3 (“Establishing”) of the Global Cybersecurity Index, has recently faced a massive data breach. The hacker group Space Bears claims to have accessed the country’s National Social Insurance Fund (NSIF) and is selling data from it on the dark web. Cybersecurity experts say that 25 GB of stolen data is being sold for 3,000 USD, with partial data (10 GB) priced at 1,000 USD.

The leaked data includes:

• Information on employee and employer contributions
• Social security details of over 1.5 million beneficiaries
• Financial documents and accounting reports
• Customer databases and backup data
• Huawei network structure diagrams
• Sensitive personal data of employees and citizens.

However, some experts state that Space Bears is just a data broker, and the real malicious actors who provided them with this information are elsewhere and have other copies.

While NSIF has not yet confirmed the data leak, this news raises serious privacy concerns as such sensitive data could be used for fraud, social engineering, or even identity theft.

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