ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia has foiled more than 4,550 cyberattacks in the first six months of the current 2023/2024 Ethiopian fiscal year, which started on July 8, an official said Wednesday.
Solomon Soka, director-general of Ethiopia's Information Network Security Administration (INSA), said his agency managed to foil over 98 percent of the 4,623 cyberattacks, the state-run Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) reported.
The number of cyberattacks targeting the East African country has increased 115 percent compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, Soka further said.
"Had the cyberattacks succeeded, Ethiopia could have suffered over 10.5 billion Ethiopian Birr (about 186 million U.S. dollars) losses," the official warned.
Soka attributed the big increase in cyberattacks targeting Ethiopia to a combination of reasons, including the worldwide increase in digitization, rising financial benefits for attackers and Ethiopia's rapid development of digital infrastructure. ■