The combination of hosting the football World Cup and new broadband capabilities make South Africa a likely target for malicious activity, Symantec believes.
The security firm has noted that Internet threats increase dramatically when there is a major sporting event coupled with the introduction of new broadband capabilities. This year, South Africa hosts the World Cup and has added two new under-sea fibre-optic cables to double its broadband availability, making it a prime target for hackers.
When Egypt made Internet connectivity a priority in 2008, the country catapulted to the number one slot for malicious activity from nowhere.
South Africa has already seen an upsurge in spam and cybercriminal activities such as defacements of government websites.
