INTERPOL's 2022 Africa Cyberthreat Assessment report revealed that South Africa experienced the highest number of cybersecurity threats in Africa, with 230 million threat detections in 2022. The majority of these threats were email-related, and South Africa also recorded the highest number of targeted ransomware and business email compromise attempts. Accenture reported that South Africa has the third-highest number of cybercrime victims globally, costing R2.2 billion annually. South Africa also saw a 100% increase in mobile banking application fraud and suffered 577 malware attacks every hour. The country ranked second to Russia for gross fraud losses on South African-issued cards. Cryptocurrency scams, such as Ponzi schemes and wallet phishing, are also a growing concern in South Africa. South Africa experienced the most targeted ransomware attacks in Q1 2021, with a variety of ransomware families noted in the attacks. With over 70% of South Africans online, cybercriminals may take advantage of unsuspecting internet users.

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