With every new application, endpoint and connection creating another potential entry point for attackers, organisations must understand their full environment to defend it effectively.

This is the foundation of attack surface management (ASM), a visibility-driven approach that helps security teams identify, assess and mitigate risk across the entire digital ecosystem – from public-facing IPs to internal applications, services and network infrastructure.

Without this visibility into your environment, it’s impossible to see where vulnerabilities exist or how attackers might exploit them.

ASM is able to provide continuous insight, helping teams recognise exposure, detect anomalies and respond faster to potential threats.

A guide to effective ASM deployment

An effective Attack Surface Management strategy involves several key steps. The first is asset identification, which involves mapping all digital assets, including devices, cloud workloads and services, to understand what’s actually connected to the environment.

This is crucial for uncovering hidden or forgotten assets that could become weak points.

Next is traffic monitoring. This is the continuous monitoring of network traffic, which provides visibility into communication patterns and helps detect anomalies that may indicate malicious activity.

Then comes risk assessment. By evaluating vulnerabilities, misconfigurations and exposures, organisations can prioritise remediation efforts based on potential impact.

This is followed by customised visualisation, where ASM dashboards and analytics are tailored to specific organisational needs, enabling faster, more informed decision-making.

The final phase is real-time event detection. Here, analytics that detect suspicious or unusual behaviour in real time are implemented to help ensure timely response and mitigation.

Together, these steps establish a proactive framework for understanding and managing the attack surface, rather than reacting after a breach occurs.

Internal versus external ASM: What’s the difference?

A complete ASM approach looks both outward and inward. External ASM focuses on internet-facing assets such as websites, cloud applications and third-party integrations – the points where an organisation connects to the outside world. Monitoring these helps detect external threats, such as scanning or attempted exploitation from unknown sources.

Internal ASM, by contrast, provides visibility into internal network assets and communications. This allows organisations to uncover misconfigurations, unpatched systems, or rogue devices that could be exploited from within. Internal visibility also supports stronger traffic policies, which can act as early warning tripwires for insider threats or lateral movement attempts.

By combining internal and external perspectives, organisations can achieve a truly holistic view of their security posture; one that detects both inbound threats and internal weaknesses before they become incidents.

Building resilience through visibility

Ultimately, effective Attack Surface Management is centred around awareness: knowing what you have, how it behaves and where it’s exposed.

Visibility enables resilience, allowing security teams to detect and respond to threats before they disrupt operations.

At NETSCOUT, we believe that visibility is the cornerstone of cybersecurity. Our solutions empower organisations to see their digital environments clearly, act decisively and safeguard their operations in an ever-changing threat landscape. In a world where the attack surface never stops expanding, clarity is the most powerful defence.

As noted by NETSCOUT SYSTEMS, INC. with the release of its latest global threat intelligence report, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Mali were all subject to lengthy incidents within the first six months of 2025, effectively putting the digital infrastructure of these countries through a gruelling endurance test.

Côte d’Ivoire suffered through the longest DDoS attack within the region, at an average duration of more than 415 minutes (almost seven hours), followed by Burkina Faso at 356.49 minutes (close to six hours), and then Mali at 336.63 minutes (more than 5.5 hours).

Bryan Hamman, regional director for Africa at NETSCOUT explains: “These extended attacks demonstrate that West African countries are not just facing frequent onslaughts – they are enduring hours-long disruptions that put critical services to the test. 

“This is of particular significance when looking at the types of organisations exposed to these attacks. Telecommunications was overwhelmingly the hardest hit in all three countries: of Mali’s 4,145 incidents, more than 95 percent (3,951) affected wireless telecommunications organisations.

Likewise for Côte d’Ivoire where, although with far fewer strikes overall (611), wireless telcos were the top of the list, with wired carriers coming in second.

Burkina Faso measured in at 168 attacks in total for the six-month period, with 85 percent (143) of these within the wired telecommunications carrier space.

“A DDoS that lasts for six or seven hours will most definitely affect service availability in a major way, impacting on user access, revenue loss and reputational damage. The fact is that cybercriminals are not just launching many small or brief attacks; in some places, they are sustaining pressure. This could indicate changes in objectives, such as disruption rather than data theft, hacktivism or even experimentation in testing resilience,” he comments.

Comparative insights across the region: Mali and Nigeria

As previously stated by Hamman, Mali not only experienced one of the longest DDoS attacks in West Africa during the first six months of 2025, but it also saw the most incidents. 

When compared to historically high-volume countries, such as Nigeria, Ghana and Guinea, it’s clear that Mali has seen the fastest growth trajectory in the region – from 115 in the first half of 2024, to 1,637 in the second part of the year, skyrocketing again to a staggering 4,145 for 1H 2025 – more than double Nigeria’s total of 1,844 from January to July this year.

“This could potentially be the result of ongoing political instability within the country, and early-stage cybersecurity capacity, in combination with its growing internet penetration.”

Nigeria did, however, still experience the most complex incidents within the region. The maximum number of vectors observed in a single attack was 23, the highest on the continent, as seen in other African countries such as South Africa, Kenya and Libya.

“Interestingly, while its top industries targeted did include wireless telcos as number one, Nigeria uniquely recorded 108 incidents aimed at beauty salons, the only country in the world to have this sector noted in NETSCOUT’s global report. Commercial banking was placed in fourth spot, with household appliances, electric houseware and consumer electronic merchant wholesalers rounding out the list in eight position.”

Countries seeing declines in DDoS incidents

In contrast to Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso, which experienced protracted ‘slow burn’ attacks, other West African countries saw either lower volumes or a decrease in DDoS activity in the first half of 2025.

Ghana and Liberia for example, two countries that were highly affected in 2024, saw a significant drop for the first six months of this year. 

From January to July 2024, Ghana led the West African region in both the frequency and diversity of cyber threats, subjected to a total of 4,753 attacks.

This dropped significantly to 917 in the second half of 2024. The country has once more seen a drastic decrease in DDoS attacks of more than 80 percent, recording just 152 incidents for 1H 2025, albeit with a complex combination of attack vectors (18 seen in one incident).

The telecommunications sector was almost exclusively under fire within the country, including wired telco businesses (94), wireless carriers (24) and satellite communications organisations (7) listed as the most targeted.

Similarly, 1,515 incidents were documented for the first half of 2024 in Liberia, with a slight decline to 1,189 for the latter part of the year.

This has dipped again by more than 76 percent to 280 over 1H 2025, mostly focused on computing infrastructure providers (76) and wireless telcos (74).

Cameroon recorded 449 incidents; a notable decline compared to the previous reporting period of 811. The attacks primarily targeted wireless telecommunications carriers (448 of 449 incidents), and the average duration remained relatively short at just more than 35 minutes, highlighting a very different threat profile compared with the slow-burn nations.

The Republic of the Congo experienced 101 DDoS incidents, also mostly directed at wireless telecommunications carriers (26 incidents), with an average duration of around 22 minutes. 

Guinea reported 141 incidents, with wireless telcos again the top target (37 attacks). Although the average duration was slightly longer than 41 minutes, the total number of incidents represents a significant reduction from the prior period (down from 341), indicating a regional easing in both frequency and impact.

“These countries demonstrate that not all West African nations are experiencing the slow-burn phenomenon,” comments Hamman. “While volumes and durations vary, the focus remains on telecommunications infrastructure, and sustained mitigation efforts appear to be paying off in places like Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, and Guinea.”

NETSCOUT maps the DDoS landscape through passive, active and reactive vantage points, providing unparalleled visibility into global attack trends.

NETSCOUT protects two-thirds of the routed IPv4 space, securing network edges that carried global peak traffic of over 800 Tbps in 1H2025.

It monitors tens of thousands of daily DDoS attacks by tracking multiple botnets and DDoS-for-hire services that leverage millions of abused or compromised devices.

Nigeria was exposed to 1,716 strikes, a significant drop from the 2,721 incidents seen in the first half of 2024.

In contrast, Mali experienced a more than ten-fold increase in 2H 2024 – up from just 115 seen previously between January and June 2024 to 1,637 in the second half of the year.

“Web search portals and all other information services bore the brunt of attacks in Mali, with an astounding average duration of 1,197 minutes per incident,” says Bryan Hamman, regional director for Africa at NETSCOUT. “This was followed by wired telecommunications carriers, which was also the most targeted industry at a global level during the same period, with more than 2,1 million incidents.

“In Nigeria, the most frequently targeted sectors included telecommunications resellers and computing infrastructure providers. Beauty salons also featured on the country’s top ten list, alongside wired telecommunications carriers, then commercial banking, used merchandise retailers, tyre dealers, and household electronics wholesalers. This shows once again how threat actors adapt their strategies accordingly within different countries to target those industries that are strong in individual sovereign territories.”

Once again, Nigeria experienced some of the region’s most complex DDoS campaigns, peaking at 22 distinct vendors used in a single attack, primarily TCP, Domain Name System (DNS) amplification and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) flood DDoS attacks, also known as Ping flood attacks.

Liberia emerged as the next most affected country, recording 1,189 DDoS attacks, down slightly from 1,515 incidents in the first half of the year.

Here, computer systems design services businesses were heavily targeted, suffering 360 attacks over the six-month period. The most frequently used attack vector was DNS amplification, with STUN amplification not far behind.

“In Ghana, DDoS activity dropped significantly in the second half of the year, falling to only 917 attacks versus 4,753 earlier in the year. Three of the top four types of businesses under fire this time were ICT-related, namely web search portals and information services (317), wired telecommunications carriers (43) and computing infrastructure providers (4). Interestingly, footwear manufacturers ranked third, with 14 attacks over the second half of 2024.”

The Democratic Republic of the Congo made its debut in NETSCOUT’s regional rankings, landing in fifth place with 879 reported attacks, comments Hamman. 

“While the most significant attack peaked at a modest 0.74 Gbps, the complexity was notable – with up to 15 vectors used in a single attack. Computing infrastructure providers were primarily affected, but a single incident aimed at a satellite telecommunications organisation lasted for a gruelling 689 minutes.

“By the same token, Cameroon may not have been the most targeted country, with 811 incidents, nor experienced the most sophisticated attacks, but statistics gathered show that the maximum bandwidth of its largest DDoS attack measured 200.43 Gbps – surpassing even Nigeria’s 148.77 Gbps.”

Meanwhile, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and the Republic of the Congo all experienced lower attack frequencies, at 495, 341 and 329 incidents respectively. Of these three countries, Côte d’Ivoire faced the largest attack, at a bandwidth of 8.66 Gbps, with the primary target being – once again – wired telecommunications carriers.

Following the ICT trend, Guinea’s wireless telecommunications carriers faced the most pressure, while in the Republic of the Congo, telecommunications resellers were hardest hit.

“This latest data from NETSCOUT reinforces a critical truth for West Africa: DDoS attacks aren’t just increasing in frequency, but also in intensity and sophistication,” adds Hamman. “While nations like Nigeria and Mali face a high volume of incidents, others are experiencing powerful, high-bandwidth attacks that can cripple essential services.

“As noted previously, the ICT sector remains firmly in the crosshairs across the continent in its entirety, making it vital for organisations across the region to prioritise proactive defence strategies, invest in continuous risk assessments and engage in broader cybersecurity collaboration to stay ahead of evolving threats,” he concludes.

Bryan Hamman, regional director for Africa at NETSCOUT, explains:

“We’re witnessing AI not just as a defence mechanism but also as a potential threat amplifier. The adoption of machine learning allows adversaries to automate reconnaissance and tailor attacks at extraordinary scale.”

In many African countries, digital adoption is outpacing cybersecurity measures, placing businesses, governments and individuals in a precarious position.

According to Hamman, without the right proactive measures in place, local organisations risk falling victim to AI-powered threat scenarios, where malware can evade traditional defences, phishing attacks become hyper-personalised and response times shrink dangerously.

“AI can be a double-edged sword, and African businesses must ensure they leverage its benefits for better protection, while steering clear of the darker side of AI by staying a step ahead of attackers,” he advises.

Generative AI (GenAI) can take many facets of cyberthreats to new levels. These could include:

• Enhancements to social engineering, such as:
  • Crafting more convincing and unique phishing emails.
  • Mimicking voices in audio messages.

• Image or video generation:
  • Deepfake images have been shown to trick biometric facial recognition if executed correctly.

• Attack scale:
  • Scaling an attack to be bigger and better is easier than ever due to the automation AI can empower.
  • Automating rudimentary processes, such as sending phishing emails, can allow cyber criminals target more individuals within an organisation to increase their chances of gaining access.

Furthermore, the integration of AI into denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks is becoming a reality, allowing threat actors to optimise botnet behaviour and target selection, making these disruptions more destructive and difficult to mitigate.

NETSCOUT urges organisations to stay vigilant by investing in AI-driven security solutions and fostering a culture of cybersecurity awareness through consistent training. “The key lies in not just reacting to threats, but pre-empting them,” Hamman concludes. “As African markets grow, robust, AI-driven cybersecurity strategies will become increasingly crucial to ensuring that digital innovation is secure and sustainable.”

NETSCOUT’s Arbor DDoS protection assures the world’s largest networks and service providers against DDoS attacks of all shapes and sizes.