Microsoft has alerted the globe to increased activities of cybercriminals, revealing that its customers face more than 600 million cybercriminal and nation-state attacks every day, ranging from ransomware to phishing to identity attacks.

The firm, which stated this on Tuesday at the Microsoft Africa AI Journalist Academy webinar, disclosed that in the last year, the cyber threat landscape continued to become more dangerous and complex.

Chairman and CEO Microsoft, Satya Nadella, said the maligned actors of the world are becoming better resourced and better prepared, with increasingly sophisticated tactics, techniques, and tools that challenge even the world’s best cybersecurity defenders.

“Even Microsoft has been the victim of well-orchestrated attacks by determined and well-resourced adversaries, and our customers face more than 600 million cybercriminal and nation-state attacks every day, ranging from ransomware to phishing to identity attacks,” he stated.

Further, the software giant said its 2024 Digital Defense report highlighted an alarming rise in attacks, with incidents targeting customers globally, doubling to 600 million per day, revealing the growing collaboration between nation-state actors and cybercriminals.

It said over 78 trillion security signals per day from the cloud, endpoints, “software tools and our partner ecosystem inform our insights and help us to understand and protect against digital threats and criminal cyberactivity.”

Last November, Corporate Vice President, Security, Compliance, Identity, and Management, Vasu Jakkal, said: “The increasing speed, scale, and sophistication of recent cyberattacks demand a new approach to security. Traditional tools are no longer enough to keep pace with the threats posed by cybercriminals.”

Jakkal said the changing threat landscape and evolution of AI means that the world needs to think about cybersecurity differently. Further on Cybersecurity in the era of AI, Chief Technical Officer and Commercial Solutions Area Director at Microsoft South Africa, Colin Baumgart, said the cybersecurity landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by the relentless evolution of technology and the increasing sophistication of cyber threats.

He said in this dynamic environment, AI has emerged as a pivotal ally in the fight against cybercrime. He said AI’s ability to analyse vast amounts of data at lightning speeds enables the identification of patterns and anomalies that may indicate a security breach, often before it occurs, stressing that a proactive stance is crucial in a time when reactive measures are no longer sufficient.

“But, in an era where digital threats are escalating in complexity and scale, we cannot just think about defending against cyber threats, we need to be advancing the way we design, build, test and operate our technology to meet the highest standards of security. It is why we have created The Secure Future Initiative (SFI), a multi-year undertaking to safeguard our digital ecosystem,” he added.

According to him, SFI is an approach that is anchored in three fundamental principles: secure by design, secure by default, and secure operations, ensuring that security is not an afterthought but a foundational element of everything we create.

Baumgart said recent cyber threats have shown a marked increase in both sophistication and frequency, posing significant challenges to cybersecurity defences worldwide. He said there has been a notable trend in the surge in mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), and operational technology (OT) cyberattacks, which underscores the expanding threat landscape beyond traditional computing environments.

Microsoft further noted that data breaches have also been rampant, with TechCrunch reporting over one billion stolen records in 2024 alone. It said these breaches have not only compromised personal information but have also emboldened criminals who profit from cyberattacks.

It stressed that as the threats evolve, so must the strategies to combat them, requiring a concerted effort from individuals, organisations, and governments alike.

Microsoft said Interpol’s African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2024 said rapid growth of cybercrime is further illustrated by the estimation that in 2023 there was a 23 per cent year-on-year increase in the average number of weekly cyberattacks per organisation in Africa – this average was the highest in the world.

The technology firm noted that as the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve, the partnership between AI and human expertise becomes increasingly important. It said AI can handle the heavy lifting of data analysis, but human judgment is irreplaceable when it comes to nuanced decision-making.