---
title: "Check Point: Africa Becomes Most Attacked Cyber Region"
description: "Check Point Research says Africa led global cyberattacks in October 2026, with 3,834 weekly attacks per organisation, up 38% year on year."
canonical_url: "https://liners.com/news/check-point-africa-most-attacked-region-cyber-threats-october-2026"
markdown_url: "https://liners.com/news/check-point-africa-most-attacked-region-cyber-threats-october-2026.md"
type: "article"
language: "en"
published_at: "2026-11-13T11:39:55.490Z"
updated_at: "2026-11-13T11:39:58.702Z"
---

# Check Point: Africa Becomes Most Attacked Cyber Region

Check Point Research says Africa led global cyberattacks in October 2026, with 3,834 weekly attacks per organisation, up 38% year on year.

## Breadcrumbs

- [News](/news)
- [Check Point: Africa Becomes Most Attacked Cyber Region](/news/check-point-africa-most-attacked-region-cyber-threats-october-2026)

## Related articles

- [Africa Startup Funding Hits $183M In October 2026](/news/african-startup-funding-october-2026-183m-mwfa91nf)
- [Zeal Shares Merchant And Funding Metrics For Terminal VAS](/news/zeal-terminal-loyalty-vas-merchant-funding-metrics)

## Content

## In Short

Check Point Research says Africa was the most attacked region in the world for cyber threats in October 2026, the first time in more than a year. Organisations in Africa faced an average of 3,834 attacks per week, up 38% from a year earlier.

## What Happened: Check Point Research Cyber Threat Report Findings

Check Point Research, the threat intelligence arm of Check Point Software Technologies, released its latest monthly threat report covering October 2026.

Africa topped the regional ranking with 3,834 weekly attacks per organisation. Latin America followed with 3,483, and Asia-Pacific came third with 3,436. Europe recorded the steepest annual growth, at 39%.

Nigeria was the most attacked country in the world, with 6,676 attacks per organisation per week, up 140% year on year. Angola was second with 6,116, up 88%. Kenya ranked fourth, behind Mexico, with 4,302, up 46%. South Africa ranked 22nd of the 42 countries surveyed, with 2,191 weekly attacks, up 17%.

Financial services, government, and energy and utilities were the most targeted sectors in Africa.

Globally, the average organisation faced 2,550 attacks per week in October. That is 9% fewer than in September, but 32% more than in October 2025. Education remained the most attacked sector worldwide, with 5,934 weekly attacks per organisation, while agriculture saw the steepest rise, up 93% to 3,218 a week.

Ian van Rensburg, head of security engineering for Africa at Check Point Software Technologies, said organisations are expanding their digital operations quickly, “often without security keeping pace.”

## Why It Matters: AI Risk And Sector Targeting

The report found that about 1 in 35 prompts typed into generative AI tools at work (2.9%) carried a high risk of leaking sensitive data. Generative AI means tools that create text or other content from a prompt, like chat assistants. This affected 90% of organisations that use these tools regularly, and the share has risen every month this quarter, from 2.3% in August.

Financial information was the most common type of sensitive data exposed, seen in prompts at 71% of organisations. Legal and regulatory material and network and IT infrastructure details were each seen at 70% of organisations.

Ransomware groups publicly claimed a record 1,063 victims in October, up 35% year on year. Ransomware is malicious software that locks or steals a victim’s data and demands payment. Business services made up 31.5% of the victims. The Gentlemen was the most active group, behind 13% of published attacks, followed by Qilin at 12%. A newer group, n0n, rose to third with 8%, and Check Point describes it as a data theft and extortion operation that relies heavily on AI-assisted tools.

Phishing eased during the month, with 1 in 128 emails (0.78%) found to be malicious, down from 1 in 91 in September. Most malicious emails (79%) contained a link.

With financial services, government, and energy and utilities most targeted in Africa, the findings point to growing pressure on the sectors that run key public and payment services as more of their operations move online.

## Sources and products

- [Tech Trends KE](https://techtrendske.co.ke/2026/11/12/africa-now-the-most-attacked-region-for-cyber-threats-check-point)

## Related pages

- [Market Trends](/news)

## Access and citation

- [Canonical HTML page](https://liners.com/news/check-point-africa-most-attacked-region-cyber-threats-october-2026)
- [Markdown route index](/sitemap.md)
- [Agent access guide](/llms.txt)