NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenyan businesses are staring at escalating financial exposure from cybercrime, with new data showing that attacks are rising sharply despite years of investment in digital tools.
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) estimates that companies forfeited more than Sh11 billion in 2023 due to breaches and system disruptions, highlighting the cost of weak security frameworks in an increasingly digitized economy.
The scale of the threat is expanding. Official figures show attempted cyber incidents surged by 201.7 percent to 2.5 billion cases in the third quarter of the financial year ending March 2025, up from 840.9 million in the previous quarter.
At the same time, CA issued 13.2 million security advisories over the three months, a 14.2 percent jump.
Industry executives warn that while the shift to cloud-based platforms is accelerating, most enterprises remain underprepared for sophisticated intrusions.
“Preparedness is everything. Without a proper plan, the financial and reputational damage is enormous,” said Fady Richmany, Commvault’s Regional Vice President for Emerging Markets in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
“We’ve seen organizations in the region take up to three months to restore operations after an attack. For an airline or a bank, such downtime is unthinkable.”
Analysts note that artificial intelligence–enabled monitoring tools will be critical as firms expand digital operations. Yet, misconceptions persist: many executives assume cloud service providers automatically shield their data from cyber risks, when in reality security responsibilities remain shared.
To address the gap, Commvault is running a Shift Campaign in Kenya, promoting a unified, cloud-native resilience platform powered by Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The system is designed to speed up recovery times and reduce operational losses following breaches.
The mounting threats underline a broader concern: as companies integrate more services online, the resilience of their digital backbone could determine not just profitability, but survival.
