Africa has a long way to go in terms of Cyber Security Liquid Intelligent Technologies said in its report launched Wednesday.
The 2021 cyber security report for Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe said Africa needs to bolster its defences in the face of rising cyber attacks after employees began working from home.
It notes that businesses in Africa are vulnerable to cybercrime, with more than half of the countries in Africa having inadequate Cyber Security laws and regulations, making it a haven for cybercriminals.
“The rapid move to cloud utilisation has only heightened the risk of both systems and data being compromised, bringing with it the need for an entirely new level of Cyber Security.”
A critical insight from the research suggests that 79 per cent of businesses from all three countries attribute an increase in Cyber Security threats to the advent of remote working.
Data breaches like data extortion, data leakage and data disclosure constitute almost 71 per cent of the cyber-attacks for Kenyan businesses, and over 70 per cent of South African and Zimbabwean organisations consider email attacks like Phishing the most prominent digital threats.
“Africa needs to improve laws, regulations, and its Cyber Security posture in order to prevent cybercrime and sustain socioeconomic growth,” part of the report reads.
The report is the first take on lessons learned from the pandemic’s impact on business. It. takes a deep dive into the current and emerging trends for Cyber Security to help businesses understand the dynamic nature of the Cyber Security threat landscape.
The participants from the research also indicated an increased consumption of Cloud-based services this year, with the numbers being as high as 96% in South Africa, 95% in Kenya and 75% in Zimbabwe.
This comes from a jump in Microsoft Office 365, Teams, Zoom, Google Workspace, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services.
Remote Environment and Future of Work; Where is the Balance?
Ignus de Villiers, Group Head of Cyber Security, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, says, “The result of our research confirms that Cyber Security should be at the centre of every business conversation and emphasises the need to establish an appropriate Cyber Security Framework that matches the business environment.”
“Critically, the framework must look beyond technical security controls to include information security management covering governance, risk, compliance, people, processes and technology,” he added during the virtual launch of the report.
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