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One of the biggest security problems is perception: The threats companies think they face are often vastly different than the threats that pose the greatest risk. For example, they hire consultants to deploy state-of-the-art public key infrastructure (PKI) or an enterprise-wide intrusion detection system when really what they need is better patching.

The fact is most companies face the same threats — and should be doing their utmost to counteract those risks. Here are the five most common (and successful) types of cyber attack.

1. Socially engineered malware

Socially engineered malware, lately often led by data-encrypting ransomware, provides the No. 1 method of attack. An end-user is somehow tricked into running a Trojan horse program, often from a website they trust and visit often. The otherwise innocent website is temporarily compromised to deliver malware instead of the normal website coding.

The maligned website tells the user to install some new piece of software in order to access the website, run fake antivirus software, or run some other “critical” piece of software that is unnecessary and malicious. The user is often instructed to click past any security warnings emanating from their browser or operating system and to disable any pesky defenses that might get in the way.

Sometimes the Trojan program pretends to do something legitimate and other times it fades away into the background to start doing its rogue actions. Socially engineered malware programs are responsible for hundreds of millions of successful hacks each year. Against those numbers, all other hacking types are just noise.

Countermeasure: Social engineered malware programs are best handled through ongoing end-user education that covers today’s threats (such as trusted websites prompting users to run surprise software). Enterprises can further protect themselves by not allowing users to surf the web or answer email using elevated credentials. An up-to-date anti-malware program is a necessary evil, but strong end-user education provides better bang for the buck.

2. Password phishing attacks

Coming a close second are password phishing attacks. Approximately 60 to 70 percent of email is spam, and much of that is phishing attacks looking to trick users out of their logon credentials. Fortunately, anti-spam vendors and services have made great strides, so most of us have reasonably clean inboxes. Think of an effective phishing email as a corrupted work of art: Everything looks great; it even warns the reader not to fall for fraudulent emails. The only thing that gives it away is the rogue link asking for confidential information.

Countermeasure: The primary countermeasure to password phishing attacks is to have logons that can’t be given away. This means two-factor authentication (2FA), smartcards, biometrics and other out-of-the-band (e.g., phone call or SMS message) authentication methods. If you can enable something other than simple logon name/password combinations for your logons, and require only the stronger methods, then you’ve beat the password-phishing game.

3. Unpatched software

Coming in close behind socially engineered malware and phishing is software with (available but) unpatched vulnerabilities. The most common unpatched and exploited programs are browser add-in programs like Adobe Reader and other programs people often use to make surfing the web easier.

Countermeasure: Stop what you’re doing right now and make sure your patching is perfect. If you can’t, make sure it’s perfect around the most exploited products, whatever they happen to be in a given time period. Everyone knows that better patching is a great way to decrease risk. Become one of the few organizations that actually does it. Better yet, make sure that you’re 100 percent patched on the programs most likely to be exploited versus trying unsuccessfully to be fully patched on all software programs.

4. Social media threats

Our online world is a social world led by Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or their country-popular counterparts. Social media threats usually arrive as a rogue friend or application install request. If you’re unlucky enough to accept the request, you’re often giving up way more access to your social media account than you bargained for. Corporate hackers love exploiting corporate social media accounts for the embarrassment factor to glean passwords that might be shared between the social media site and the corporate network. Many of today’s worst hacks started out as simple social media hacking. Don’t underestimate the potential.

Countermeasure: End-user education about social media threats is a must. Also make sure that your users know not to share their corporate passwords with any other foreign website. Lastly, make sure all social media users know how to report a hijacked social media account, on their own behalf, or someone else’s. Sometimes it is their friends who notice something is amiss first.

5. Advanced persistent threats

There is one major corporation that has not suffered a major compromise due to an advanced persistent threat (APT) stealing intellectual property. APTs usually gain a foothold using socially engineered Trojans or phishing attacks.

A very popular method is for APT attackers to send a specific phishing campaign — known as spearphishing

Countermeasure: Detecting and preventing an APT can be difficult, especially in the face of a determined adversary. All the previous advice applies, but you must also learn to understand the legitimate network traffic patterns in your network and alert on unexpected flows. An APT doesn’t understand which computers normally talk to which other computers, but you do. Take the time now to start tracking your network flows and get a good handle of what traffic should going from where to where. An APT will mess up and attempt to copy large amounts of data from a server to some other computer where that server does not normally communicate. When they do, you can catch them.

Other popular attack types such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, pass-the-hash and password guessing

Lastly, avail yourself of a product or service that specializes in detecting APT-style attacks.

President Paul Kagame and his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta have endorsed the ‘New Deal on Energy’, a vehicle through which the African Development Bank (AfDB) will invest in delivering electricity for all Africans, by 2025.

Both Kagame and Kenyatta were speaking on a live CNBC-Africa television debate that also featured AfDB president Dr Akinwumi Adesina, yesterday afternoon, on the sidelines of the 51st AfDB Annual Meeting ongoing in Lusaka, Zambia.

Speaking to a fully packed audience, the three leaders shared their ideas on the ‘path to universal access to energy in Africa by 2025’, which is what the AfDB’s new deal on energy intends to achieve under President Adesina’s leadership.

“This new deal on energy is a big deal for Africa,” said President Kagame adding that it brings a new momentum in the efforts of doing what Africa should otherwise have done, long time ago.

Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta also backed the ‘new deal’, noting that Africa has a lot of potential in renewable energy sources that just needs further enhancement.

“We have heard and had enough of the theory. It is now time for practical engagement by supporting the AfDB to leverage Africa’s huge potential,” said President Kenyatta.

In his remarks, Adesina noted that Kagame and Kenyatta represent what Africa needs most at the moment, the political will to translate Africa’s potential into tangible benefits for its people.

“Money is not the key. Political will is all we need to get things done,” said Adesina.

Dr Adesina noted that although it is true that Africa has a lot of energy potential, industries don’t run on potential, they run on energy.

The AfDB has pledged to commit $12 billion over the next five years to invest in energy alone and ensure there is access to electricity for all Africans by 2025.

Currently, only about 16 per cent of Africans are said to be connected to some sort of energy source, with another over 645 million Africans having no form of access to electricity, while over 700 million persons don’t have access to clean energy for cooking.

The goals include expanding grid-power by 160 Giggawatts, connecting 130 million people to grid, another 75 million people connected to off-grid sources and 150 million households to clean cooking energy.

The 51st AfDB Annual Meetings are being held under the theme, “Energy and climate change,” and this, according to Adesina, is for a good reason, because by solving Africa’s electricity challenge, natural resources, such as forests, will be saved.

President Kagame backed Dr Adesina’s thoughts on electricity noting that, on top of being tired of darkness, Africa is also tired of poverty which can be addressed through industrialization and creation of jobs for the youth .

“There is pressure from our people and there is commitment among the leaders to deliver but we must find ways of accelerating our progress to deliver results faster,” said President Kagame.

According to President Kenyatta, investing in inter-connectivity of countries is among the areas that need to see more efforts from African leaders.

“We must look at energy as any other commodity that we can trade among ourselves. We must invest in connectivity to enable those that have more of electricity resources to share with those that have less of it,” he said.

President Kagame cited an example where a deal between Rwanda and Kenya to export 30 megawatts to the former has been rendered impossible because of lack of a transmission line between the two countries; this he noted, was a key area for investment.

All three leaders concurred on the need to involve the private sector into investing in energy and noted that countries should begin by advancing reforms in their respective energy generation and distribution sectors to open up space for new players.

Heads of State and Government at the summit also included Presidents Edgar Lungu of Zambia and Idriss Deby of Chad. Nigerian Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Prime Ministers of Tanzania and Mozambique – Kassim Majaliwa and Carlos Agostinho do Rosário, respectively, were also in attendance.

Other high-profile attendees include singer Akon, Kofi Annan, Aliko Dangote, Ashish Thakkar, John Kufuor, Mary Robinson, Mo Ibrahim, Nancy Lee, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Tony Elumelu, among others.

In East Africa, the European Union (EU) has engaged in a funding agreement with Rwanda that is worth €177 million ($202 billion), which will be directed towards the energy sector over the next five years.

The financing pact is the first of a series to be signed in the coming months as part of a €460 million ($52.5 billion) programme of EU grant financial assistance to Rwanda agreed in 2015, reports The New Times.

The minister of finance and economic planning, Claver Gatete, said the funds will help Rwanda to improve the supply, transmission and distribution of electricity as well as assist the country reach its goal of becoming a middle income country by 2020.

“Energy is one of the top priorities for the government of Rwanda and access to modern energy for a major part of the Rwandan population and the development of its productive activities is a prerequisite for the achievement of our development goal of becoming [a] middle income country by 2020,” Gatete said.
EU asserts commitment

Speaking on the development, Michael Ryan, the head of the EU delegation to Rwanda stated that the assistance will continue to focus on strategic areas, including energy, agriculture, and good governance.

Ryan echoed the finance minister’s views stating that the funding will translate into increased productivity, poverty reduction and help propel the country towards becoming a middle income economy, adding that the EU’s commitment to Rwanda’s long term prosperity and stability is unshakeable.

“This €177 million grant for energy will help improve access to energy, particularly for those in rural areas. 2016 is an important year for the EU in Rwanda.

“We will be signing several more such financing agreements, including a €200 million grant to agriculture – this will be our largest single financial operation in Rwanda to date,” he said.

Rwanda’s current installed power generation capacity is reported to be standing at 186MW, against a target of 563MW in the next two years.

According to the media, the minister for energy, water and sanitation, Germaine Kamayirese, has stated that the government has designed a new energy policy seeking to boost transmission, reliability and affordability of power across the country.

Rwanda has signed a $24.17 million financing agreement with the African Development Bank (AfDB) in support of the regional 147MW Ruzizi III hydropower plant (HPP).

Rwanda’s minister for finance and economic planning, Claver Gatete, commented: “The project [Ruzizi III hydropower] underscores the importance of ensuring reliable and affordable electric power supply to achieve sustainable economic transformation.”

Gatete noted that the concessional loan is one of the cheapest as it stands at 0.75% and will be paid back in 38 years with a grace period of five years, reports The New Times.

The Ruzizi III plant is a regional project shared by Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is expected to generate more than 147MW of electricity.

The generated power will be shared equally amongst the three participating countries with Rwanda getting at least 50MW of electricity.

Gatete also stated that the hydropower project is the first regional project designed as a public-private partnership aimed at optimising the hydropower potential across the region.

According to the media, the entire Ruzizi III hydropower project is estimated to cost $625 million, including the AfDB’s overall contribution of $190 million covering contributions for Burundi, DRC and Rwanda, and resources to be lent directly to the Project Company on commercial terms.
Ruzizi III relevant to climate change

The AfDB country representative, Negatu Makonnen, disclosed that the project package will also include an 8.3 kilometer and 220kV transmission line connecting Kyamanyola power dispatch centre and associated power evacuating lines.

Makonnen said: “Sustainable regional infrastructure is a necessity for strong regional integration and key to successfully tackling today’s most challenging climate change-related problems and security.

“The Multinational Ruzizi III HPP is central to AfDB’s strategic vision for the development of the African energy sector through the promotion of universal access to low-carbon and inclusive modern energy. This concept has been demonstrated several times in this country.”

Construction of the project is expected to commence in 2018 and could take four year to reach completion.

A memorial to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda is to be powered almost entirely from solar following the completion of a PV system on the site.

The project was completed earlier this month at the Genocide Memorial in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

Details of the project’s size have been withheld for customer confidentiality reasons, but David John Frenkil, founder and managing director of Centennial Generating Co, the company behind the project, said the system would meet the majority of the memorial site’s electricity needs.

“The project will reduce most of the need for power during sunlight hours. The memorial centre is the most visited tourist site in the country and it’s quite large in terms of its energy demands, so it’s pretty great to remove most of the power needs and we sell them the power at a rate that’s cheaper than they get from the utility,” Frenkil said.

Later in the year Frenkil said battery storage units would be added to the solar system to provide additional protection against power outages. Frenkil said the expected storage system would provide two hours of battery back up, safeguarding against most power shortages.

“Our data shows that roughly 85% of power shortages [in Kigali] are less than two hours. So that means that by providing at least two hours of battery storage we can mitigate most of the need for standby diesel,” Frenkil told PV Tech.

Centennial is a newly formed company that is targeting principally the commercial and industrial segment in sub-Saharan Africa.

Frenkil said that with much of the current investment in African solar going to small off-grid systems or large utility arrays, there was a need for investment in projects of an intermediate size that would help businesses cut their power costs and avoid problems associated with unreliable supply.

“Centennial focuses on a currently under-addressed challenge for commercial and industrial customers in and near urban centres that need more affordable and reliable power supply,” he said.

Under Centennial’s model, the company finances, installs, owns, operates and maintains the systems it builds. Frenkil said it had a pipeline of PPA in progress with businesses such as hotels, office buildings and factories.

The second, battery phase of the Genocide Memorial project is due to be completed later this year.

President Paul Kagame addressing the audience at the 13th National Leadership Retreat in Gabiro

The government has announced it will achieve all goals underlined in its Vision 2020 laid 16 years ago.

Stella Ford Mugabo, the Minister in charge of Cabinet affairs told media that 72% of the national vision 2020 objectives has been attained.

“We found out that this was the time to discuss what we have achieved, but also look at how to fast track targets that are trialing,” she said while briefing the Media on the resolutions during the just concluded 13th National Leaders Retreat.

The retreat chaired by President Paul Kagame was held under the theme ‘Striving to promote products made in Rwanda’.

Minister Mugabo said the retreat discussed four key issues; strategies to fast-track the programs under the vision 2020, the Second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy-EDPRS 2, and the government’s seven year program ending next year.

Others included revamping the manufacturing sector in order to increase ‘Made-in-Rwanda’ products, public accountability and ethics as well as guaranteeing rights of children and promoting social welfare.

EDPRS2, which is expected to close by 2018, has so far scored 76% of the targets while the government’s seven year program ending with the president’s term in 2017 has also scored 75%.

Uzziel Ndagijimana, State Minister of Finance and Economic Planning said the government is preparing the 2016/2017 fiscal year budget.

In the budget, the targets that have not been addressed will be catered for. “We agreed during the retreat to put extra effort using the current systems to ensure that we achieve these targets,” Minister Ndagijimana said.

Targets still lagging behind include; electricity, both generation and accessibility, creation of secondary cities, increasing agriculture productivity, export promotion all of which are key ingredients for the country’s economic growth.