The government is enhancing capacity of its cybercrime response units amid rising attacks from malicious actors targeting public digital infrastructure.
This comes following the cyberattack on Monday which paralyzed access to a number of government websites which Broadcasting and Telecommunications Principal Secretary Stephen Isaboke attributes to a group known as PCP@Kenya.
“We were actually able to detect that attack,” said Isaboke.
“Within a couple of hours we had recovered all those websites and obviously neutralized that cybercrime.”
On Monday, government websites including that of the Presidency, Health, Labour and Interior ministries including a number of state agencies were hijacked and defaced by the group, a factor Isaboke also attributed to the increased digitalization of government services.
“We haven’t quantified extent of loss but anytime there is an outage, there is a loss of time, resource and opportunities,” he noted.
Speaking at the 2025 National Cybersecurity Conference in Nairobi, Isaboke said the targeting of government infrastructure by cybercriminals has also been accelerated by rising number of touchpoints which the actors are keen to exploit.
The government is now keen on enhancing its partnership with the United Kingdom in a bid to improve Kenya’s resilience against cyberthreats.
“It is also important that we keep citizens safe. A recent research that was supported by the UK on looking at cybercrime across this continent suggests that in eastern Africa, 30pc of all crimes currently have a relation to cybercrime,” said Dr Ed Barnett, UK Deputy Head of Mission to Kenya.
The conference organized by the Communications Authority brought together government officials, private sector and academia to explore emerging cyberthreats, share best practices an strengthen national and global collaboration in securing Kenya’s digital ecosystem.
