Malware and anti-malware baseline: An inductive study of Ghanaian microfinance companies

Abstract

Prior research has shown that malware incidents and anti-malware deployment increasingly grows worldwide with Ghana not being an exception. This research focused on determining the malware and anti-malware baselinewithin the Ghanaian microfinance sector as a means of obtaining better knowledge of the phenomena for the purpose of addressing the growing challenge. The approach was sequential exploratory with subsequent simultaneous triangulation of qualitative and quantitative data. The results obtained and analysis of the results show that within the context of malware baselining, viruses are the most common malware infections yet there are relatively little consequences experienced with the infections. Third party mobile devices, laptops and computers tend to be the most infected systems within the Ghanaian microfinance industry and the most challenging threat that has not been properly countered is the advanced persistent threat. In the antimalware setting, the rate of  effectiveness of the current anti-malware protection is predominantly above average or average at minimum given their primary objective of  efficacy as the basis for purchase.

Key Words: Malware, Anti-Malware, Micro-Finance, Companies, Baseline