Cybersecurity // 90% IT Decision-Makers Amplify Their Focus

Over 90% of IT decision-makers across South Africa, Kenya, and Zimbabwe have accelerated their Cyber Security due to the substantial emergence of digital ways of working.

This is according to the latest 2021 research on cybersecurity undertaken by Liquid Intelligent Technologies.

The study established some of the main concerns about Cybersecurity threats and the most significant impacts of digital breaches on an organizational level.

A critical insight from the research suggests that 79% of businesses from all three countries attribute an increase in Cybersecurity threats to the advent of remote working.

Data breaches like data extortion, data leakage, and data disclosure constitute almost 71% of the cyber-attacks for Kenyan businesses, and over 70% of South African and Zimbabwean organizations consider email attacks like Phishing the most prominent digital threats.

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 (AWS).

Consequentially, Cybersecurity threats and concerns seem to be spiralling up as the workforce continues to shift to working through digital platforms.

According to the research, managing user access to information, data loss and recovery, visibility and control of data, and compliance challenges remain some of the biggest concerns for organizations.

Almost 80% of organizations that participated in this research from Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Kenya agree that Cyber Security threats have increased over the past year.

Cybersecurity steps to consider in your Business

When segmented by respondents working specifically in large enterprises, the research permitted a more informed audience and knowledgeable opinions.

According to the study, an emerging trend for 2021 is that 53% of the respondents emphasize security and data protection as significant concerns.

Some of the biggest security concerns cited by businesses using Cloud services are managing user access to information, data loss, recovery, and lack of security controls made available by Cloud providers.

The research also pointed out Email attacks, Web-based attacks, Social Engineering, Malware, Ransomware, and Data Breaches to be the top concerns around Cyber Security in 2021.

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 emphasizes 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”.

The 2021 research from Liquid 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.

Liquid aims to highlight the importance of investing in Cyber Security controls and take a microscopic look at the current trends that navigate this complex field, thereby allowing its clients, consumers, and partners to adjust their existing security infrastructure to be well prepared for the future.

The report further highlights that with remote working now an entrenched operating model, businesses in Africa have the flexibility to compete on many different levels, whether locally, nationally, regionally, or internationally.

As technology becomes more affordable, even micro-enterprises can enter the digital space to compete on an equal footing with much more established businesses, regardless of geographic location.

“Digitalization is, however, a double-edged sword. As much as it brings an unprecedented platform for socio-economic development, it also carries all the risks of operating in a digital environment, including the risk of cyberattacks, data corruption, data breaches, and data loss,” reads the report.

This comes into sharp perspective when one recognizes that data is essential to the enablement of every business. It is every business’s most important asset and, even in small enterprises like spaza shops, it is critical to decision-making.

The rapid move to cloud utilization 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.

For an in-depth analysis and assessment of Cyber Security trends, read the full report here.