Africa's Cyberthreat Landscape

Africa's Cyberthreat Landscape

INTERPOL released African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026 — an assessment of cyberthreats across the continent in 2025. The report is based on data from 36 African countries. The authors note that cybercrime in the region has evolved from a collection of isolated incidents into a borderless criminal ecosystem

The scale of the problem continues to grow: over the year, the number of identified victims increased from 35,000 to 87,000, while reported losses rose from $192 million to $484 million. The total direct economic damage caused by cybercrime in Africa in 2025 is estimated at a minimum of $5 billion.

Online fraud is becoming an industry. Mobile payment fraud was reported by 97% of surveyed countries, while 72% reported the presence of scam centers. Some of these centers are linked to human trafficking and coercion of workers into participating in fraudulent schemes .

Ransomware is increasingly being used to disrupt critical infrastructure, rather than solely to encrypt data for ransom. Attacks affected the energy sector, government services, telecommunications, healthcare, and transport. South Africa accounted for 92% of ransomware detections on the continent.

Data breaches are becoming the foundation for other crimes. In 2025, the volume of African-origin content on dark web forums increased by 62%. Identity documents, SIM card PINs, banking credentials, and mobile money account details are appearing for sale and are subsequently used in business email compromise attacks, identity theft, and financial fraud.

AI is becoming a key force multiplier for criminal operations: according to an INTERPOL survey, in 2025, 55% of observed cybercrime cases in the responding African countries were linked to the use of AI to some extent. AI is used for phishing, deepfakes, creating synthetic identities to bypass Know Your Customer protocols, and developing malware.

In addition to current threats, the report examines the main challenges in combating cybercrime in Africa, as well as regional initiatives and law enforcement operations. The full report is available on the page in the Related Documents section.

Different types of cybercrime in the region are becoming increasingly interconnected. A data breach provides material for identity theft, synthetic profiles help bypass verification checks, AI automates social engineering, and scam centers and networks of money mules turn individual techniques into a scalable criminal business.