Digital freedom – we experience it every day without really thinking too much about it. Yet behind our carefree habits lies a crucial question. It’s not whether you’ll be a victim of a cyberattack, but when. And especially who will be at your side to help deal with it. Anticipating, detecting, identifying, protecting and reacting: this is the job of Orange Cyberdefense. These guardians of the network are turning Orange into a European leader of cybersecurity.
Cybercrime and cyberattacks: an ever-changing reality
You’ve probably heard about or even experienced phishing attempts or online scams. These attacks are becoming more widespread and frequent. Their growth is as exponential as that of data speeds and connected devices. Their diversification is keeping pace with the explosion of digital uses worldwide. Fraud and data hacks are now occurring on an industrial scale across all business sectors and geographies. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force in the European Union in May 2018, has helped to make the loss and theft of data more visible.
The Security Navigator Report 2024 from Orange Cyberdefense provides key information about this critical period for cyber security as it anticipates an increase in cyber extortion. This affects 3,400 organizations with a 46% increase in victims in one year. While large enterprises remain the most affected, SMEs are also seeing an increase in attacks. What’s more, a new paradigm is emerging where state-sponsored cyberattacks, hacktivists, and criminal gangs are intensifying their activities in Europe, North America, and the Middle East. Combined business and personal uses also create new threats, such as attacks that directly target mobile devices and corporate employees to corrupt organizations’ networks.
In light of these new insights, Orange Cyberdefense’s expert teams continue to support you in building a safer digital society.
Africa particularly affected by cybercrime
If Africa is benefiting from the latest technology developments (AI, blockchain, cloud, big data), and seizing multiple opportunities that come from them, it must also face all the security challenges in the pipeline. However, the continent lacks the IT necessary to protect government authorities, businesses and individuals from cyberattacks. High-profile cybercrime lost Africa almost $3.5 billion in 2017*. Online fraud accounts for almost 90% of cybercrime cases in Africa.
SMEs, manufacturing, and the public sector are especially vulnerable
As individuals, taking the right steps to avoid a scam or phishing attempt is essential. At the corporate level, the issue is even more complex. Business digital transformation opens up huge opportunities, in terms of customer experience, increased productivity, new applications and more. But to uphold these promises fully, integrating cybersecurity is a major priority.
Businesses today face a barrage of cyber attacks, the most common being ransomware, most often caused by a scam email. A company’s economic impact from stolen personal, financial, or commercial data is considerable, whatever its size or sector.
Cyber extortion can lead to a risk of bankruptcy for small and medium-sized businesses, a factory shutdown in the industrial sector, or even the total paralysis of a company.
In the public sector, 76% of attacks can be attributed to external forces (cybercriminals or state-backed cyber espionage groups), with the ripple effect extending far beyond the economic impacts. Hacked computer systems can have disastrous repercussions for citizens (hospitals, transport, etc.). The public sector accounts for the fifth largest share of incidents handled.
Anticipation and reactivity: the keys to cyberdefense
Responsiveness is key to cyberdefense. To make a difference, it's not enough to be reactive, you have to anticipate. When it comes to Orange, we have a decisive advantage: being an operator gives us a head start.
Orange Cyberdefense brings together 3,000 experts in a range of security professions to constantly monitor our network. They analyse 60 billion events each day and are first to spot any signs of attack! Through their work, our database contains more than 550 million virus samples reviewed and listed according to their nature.
