Source: Mykhailo Polenok via Alamy Stock Photo

Kenyan officials said more than one billion cyber threats hit the nation in the final quarter of last year.

That's a massive jump from the 123 million cyber threats detected in the previous quarter. The Communications Authority of Kenya attributed the increase to a recent enhancement of the country's cyber-threat monitoring capabilities, as well as the increased exploitation of vulnerabilities by attackers targeting the increased number of Internet devices in Kenya.

Local media reports said of the 1.2 billion detections, 13.2 million contained malware, and 9.7 million were brute-force entry attempts. It was unclear how many of the cyberattacks detected were successful.

Edward Kisiang'ani, principal secretary for Broadcast and Telecommunications at the Kenyan Ministry of ICT, said the government is upgrading its threat detection systems, and training staff to deal with such threats. He also said the ministry is keen "to collaborate with countries in the region in mitigating cross-border cyber threats."