North Africa’s Algeria leads the list of top twenty nations with the highest level of online users affected by local and web security threats on the continent, according to a new research report.  

The research report  titled “IT Threat Evolution Q1 2014” was compiled by endpoint protection solutions firm, Kaspersky Lab.

The report details global IT threats based on data from the Kaspersky Security Network and found that African nations continue to dominate the list of countries that face a high risk of local infection.  

Kaspersky Lab defines local infections as threats that have penetrated a computer system through something other than the internet, email, or network ports.

And according to the regional Kaspersky Security Network statistics in the report - Algeria has the highest level of both local threats (coming from local networks, USBs, CDs and DVDs) and web threats - 18.3 million cyber security incidents in total.

It was further noted that 54.5% of users in the North African country encountered local threats and 31.6% faced online threats.

Ghareeb Saad, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab said, “While mobile and financial malware, advanced persistent threats and web threats are becoming more popular among cybercriminals, removable devices and local networks are still the prime sources of IT risks for users in Africa.”

He added, “Companies and home users should be aware of those risks and take care of their data by using comprehensive security solutions.”

Other African nations featured on the list of countries highly affected by local and web security threats include Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Djibouti and Morocco.

Meanwhile, in South Africa there were over 4.6 million cyber-attacks and malware infections on the computers and mobile devices of users, which was approximately 10% of the region’s total number.

Only 29.6% of South African users faced local threats and just 15.4% of users faced web-borne threats during first quarter of 2014.

South Africa is therefore placed 130th worldwide when it comes to local threats and 141st in terms of web-related threats, the statement revealed.

“Africa accounted for 4% of total security incidents worldwide, “ the statement concludes.