  As the internet penetration rate in Africa increases, so does the
proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Along with this growth
in internet access is the risk of cyberattacks to vulnerable IoT devices
mushrooming in the African cyberspace. One way to determine IoT vulnerabilities
is to find open ports within Africa s cyberspace. Our research leverages Shodan
search engine, a powerful tool for discovering IoT devices facing the public
internet, to find open ports across Africa. We conduct an analysis of our
findings, ranking countries from most to least vulnerable to cyberattack. We
find that South Africa,Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, and Nigeria are the five
countries most susceptible to cyberattack on the continent. Further, 69.8% of
devices having one of the five most commonly open internet ports have had past
documented vulnerabilities. Following our analysis, we conclude with policy
recommendations for both the public and private sector.
