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The World Wide Web continues to receive new users, many of whom lack experience in detecting fraudulent methods used by cybercriminal organizations. How can they be protected?
In 2022, Anicet Itikpo, a security officer in Benin, received a Facebook link sent by someone he thought was his friend, and actually clicked on the link to open it. He told the BBC: “The link led me to a fraudulent platform that asked me for my personal information, including my bank account.”
Etikpo experienced a huge financial loss and began to doubt the security of his personal data.
The young Beninese man was new to using the Internet and the incident occurred after a few years of using it. But now, with Internet connectivity expanding in regions like West Africa, millions will face cyber risks they never faced before. How can these be protected?
An estimated 2.6 billion people currently do not have an Internet connection, or about a third of the world's population. If the current pace of development of Internet connectivity continues, about two billion additional people will be able to access Internet service by 2030.
This means that many new users will encounter spam, ransomware, and fake websites for the first time.
This represents new opportunities for cybercriminals: a kind of “gold rush” in the world of cybercrime. Especially since the systems designed to protect new users, from digital literacy training to consumer fraud protection, do not always expand at the same pace as the Internet.
“What we are witnessing is a cybercriminal environment characterized by growing professionalism and opportunism,” says Zaki Touridi, chief technology field officer at CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that tracks digital adversaries. “While we primarily work with businesses, the implications of this protection extend to individuals, especially when we help secure critical infrastructure like healthcare, education, and public services that many new users rely on.”
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Cybercriminals exploit automation, artificial intelligence, and social engineering to exploit any digital vulnerability, regardless of users' experience with the Internet. But for those encountering these threats for the first time, the changing landscape of the Internet may make them more difficult to detect.
"On the one hand, today's new Internet user has access to life-changing information, services, and opportunities," Turidi explains. "But on the other hand, he faces a digital environment that is much more complex and dangerous than it was when we first started using the Internet."
Attackers can now use culturally or linguistically tailored fraudulent tactics to impersonate local banks, offer fake government aid, and promote phone apps that appear normal but contain spyware.
“We expect this situation to worsen as criminals’ tactics evolve to include AI-generated content and deepfake technology,” Turidi adds.
Cybercriminals often coordinate their plans via encrypted channels in dark web forums. Some organizations even offer cybercrime “toolkits,” providing ready-made phishing materials or access to stolen financial data, which helps even criminals with little technical experience exploit this space.
International law enforcement agencies have warned that cybercrime has become more organized and its commercial scope has expanded. For example, the ITU's Global Cybersecurity Index highlights the risks facing new Internet users, including fraud, phishing, and an increase in ransomware attacks.
For Beninese officer Itikpo, the consequences of the scam were real. “I felt very weak,” he said. He believes this weakness was due not so much to technical ignorance as to trust: “Many people trust their online acquaintances and react quickly, without verifying the authenticity of the message.”
The vulnerability is particularly acute in Africa: the continent remains the least connected to the Internet on Earth, even as it has some of the fastest growth rates in Internet use, and a recent study found wide disparities across the region.
While Internet penetration rates in countries such as South Africa and Seychelles are close to 80 percent, rural areas in parts of Benin and densely populated countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo still suffer from a lack of Internet access. Satellite communications are expensive, fixed-line Internet infrastructure is limited and often unreliable, and inadequate security means those who do manage to connect to the Internet are vulnerable to fraud.
With the number of Internet users in Africa expected to increase by more than 280 million over the next four years, there is an urgent need for better measures to prevent cybercrime.
According to Interpol, losses related to cybercrime in Africa have more than doubled since 2024, rising from $192 million to $484 million.
Safeguards already exist, but experts say they need to be more robust, such as digital education programs in schools and stronger consumer protection against online fraud.
UNODC has developed smart technology solutions to detect cybercrime, as well as local security measures (such as internet access controls and malware detection) as part of its response to cybercrime, while the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has dedicated cybercrime teams in each of its field offices.
In the United Kingdom, the National Crime Agency launched successful international investigations into the activities of cybercrime gangs. However, most of these measures focus on investigating cybercrimes after they occur, rather than targeting the risks faced by new Internet users.
“Cybersecurity is a huge concern,” says Robert Anderson, founder of Telecom4Good, a nonprofit IT partner that helps other global nonprofits (mostly in Africa) secure affordable, secure internet services.
CrowdStrike recommends that organizations “view cybersecurity as a continuous improvement process rather than a checklist.”
It is believed that these risks will increase as the digital system expands. Sector forecasts indicate that the number of devices connected to the Internet will reach more than 38 billion devices around the world by 2030, from the largest equipment in power plants to the smallest devices such as pacemakers and all the way to self-driving cars.
As the number of connected systems increases, the target area for potential attacks expands, and the entry points that hackers can exploit increase.
Governments and law enforcement agencies are aggressively trying new methods to respond to attacks. Some administrations have tried to criminalize various forms of cybercrime.
The African Union has made cybersecurity a key priority under Agenda 2063, while Interpol helps African police services prevent and investigate cybercrime, including training small businesses on how to protect themselves from online fraud.
In Myanmar, which has seen rapid growth in Internet use over the past decade, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded an awareness campaign specifically targeting new Internet users.
Nigeria amended its cybercrime law in 2024 to add protection measures for emerging digital markets.
As for India, it has established a national hotline to enable victims to report fraud immediately and freeze money stolen through banks and payment applications.
On the other hand, education, which is another part of the government's duties, is proving to be no less important than law enforcement. But governments may undermine the freedoms they are supposed to protect.
“Governments impose digital lockdowns, preventing the free use of communications during elections, civil unrest or national disasters,” says Anderson.
For their part, technology companies have also sought to address this problem, but their efforts often focus more on platform security than on preparing new users to face emerging threats.
In 2018, Microsoft launched the Cybersecurity Technology Agreement, an alliance of more than 150 global technology companies committed to core cybersecurity principles, including protecting users from cyberattacks and providing tools to help them stay safe online.
These commitments represent an important step toward making the Internet safer for everyone, regardless of technical expertise or geographic location. However, translating the sector's many pledges into practical protection for new Internet users remains a challenge, especially with the tremendous development of criminal networks' methods of exploiting the Internet.
When asked about its free security tools, Google pointed to a range of tools, including Google's password manager, two-step verification, passkeys (passwordless forms of authentication such as fingerprint and facial biometrics), and its Advanced Protection program, which provides additional protection for high-profile users like campaign workers and journalists, says Kimberly Samra, Google's director of security and cybersecurity communications.
As for any thoughts about a “cybercrime gold rush” or the rise in cybercrime due to its huge profits, Kimberly said: “I don’t think we have a clear view on this, as it is very speculative.”
As connectivity spreads faster than digital literacy or cybersecurity infrastructure, the question may not be whether new users will encounter cybercrime, but how prepared they will be when they do.
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