{
  "id": 6752630,
  "title": "Check Point red-flags heightened attacks on Africa’s energy and utilities sectors",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/check-point-red-flags-heightened-attacks-on-africas-energy-and",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-11T10:41:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "ITWeb",
    "slug": "itweb",
    "url": "https://www.itweb.co.za/article/check-point-red-flags-heightened-attacks-on-africas-energy-and-utilities-sectors/Pero3MZ36XdqQb6m"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Check Point Research's Global Threat Intelligence insights revealed that Africa's energy and utilities sectors were the most targeted in August 2026, followed by financial services and government institutions. Lorna Hardie, regional director for Africa at Check Point Software, emphasizes the need to prioritize cyber security for these vital sectors as they form the \"heartbeat\" of any country's economy. Global cyber attacks averaged 2,422 per week, a 4% increase from the previous month and a 22% year-on-year rise. African organizations experienced more frequent attacks, with Angola leading at 5,416 attacks per organization per week, a 47% year-on-year increase. Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa followed with 4,906, 3,658, and 2,086 attacks per organization, respectively, all up from the previous year. The report highlights a global increase in cyber risk, with ransomware, phishing, and GenAI-related data exposure remaining major concerns. GenAI usage rose, with the average user generating 106 prompts in August, up from the previous month. Around 86% of organizations using GenAI regularly faced high-risk prompt activity, with healthcare and medical industries recording the highest exposure rate at 4%. Email remains a significant attack vector, with one in every 112 emails classified as phishing, down from one in every 128 in July. Ransomware activity increased, with 1,042 attacks reported in August, nearly double the number from August 2025 and 8% higher than in July. Qilin was the most active ransomware group, responsible for 15% of published attacks, followed by Gentlemen at 10% and Orova making its debut at 3%. The threat landscape underscores the importance of moving from reactive detection to proactive prevention, with unified security controls essential for reducing complexity and identifying threats across distributed digital environments.",
  "summary": "African organisations faced more weekly cyber attacks than the global average in August 2026, with energy and utilities bearing the brunt, Check Point Research finds.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}