Tag: cyberattacks

As organisations across the globe contend with an increasing number of cyberattacks, schools and higher learning institutions are looking for innovative and cost-effective ways to protect their students, staff, and data from breaches and ransomware.

If you believe cybercrime is something that only happens to businesses and “other people,” now is a good time to reboot your attitude. South Africa currently has the third highest number of cybercrime victims worldwide according to Accenture, with cybercrime costing South Africa R2.2 billion per year.

Given the rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape, there is a growing sense that South African companies will rethink their cloud approaches to better prepare for rapid recovery in the event of potential ransomware and other cyberattacks in 2023.

The global adoption of digital technology is rapidly increasing, which has caused an evolution in criminal behaviour resulting in the increased occurrence of cyberattacks on businesses and individuals respectively.

With citizens, governments, and businesses more dependent than ever on digital connectivity, one of the most pressing sectoral issues for this decade is cybersecurity. While this issue has been in the public consciousness for some time now, there is still a wide perception gap between organisational executives, who feel positively about their cyber resilience, and security leaders who do not.

The statistics make for worrying reading. According to our Data Protection Trends Report 2022, 97% of South African companies experienced an outage due to a cyberattack in the past 12 months. Of those, almost nine in 10 (86%) suffered a ransomware attack.

Advanced persistent threats (APTs) continue to test organisations’ strength by exploiting new vulnerabilities, organising massive supply chain incidents and targeting specific industries. According to one study, 84% of enterprises globally acknowledge that cyberattacks have become more sophisticated.

The massive surge in cybercrime, the ever-increasing number of threat vectors, and a critical skills shortage has left organisations feeling more vulnerable to cyberattacks than ever before. With exponentially more ransomware incidents being reported than there are skilled cybersecurity professionals available, progressive businesses are looking to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to close the gap.

As the level of cyber threats rises every year, driving awareness around protection on Global Computer Security Day and beyond is crucial. The last 12 months saw the highest level of cyber incidents ever: a 40% surge in attacks worldwide, with the frequency in South Africa far above the global average.

Recent global events, specifically the global COVID-19 pandemic, have caused widespread business disruption and transformation, forcing businesses to adapt to new ways of working in an extremely short period.