Tag: cybercrime

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.

Picture this: It’s Black Friday and it’s time to take advantage of the massive sale on your favourite online shop. You’ve been receiving emails all month in the run-up to the day and you’ve bookmarked several items that you just have to have – and their prices for one day only are ridiculously low. You open the browser, head to the store and….

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.

We have launched the Africa Cyber Security Outlook 2022 survey which unpacks the state of cybersecurity across the continent - highlighting that the cyber landscape in Africa is highly dynamic and rapidly evolving - propelled by widespread digitisation and matched by adequate investments in protecting assets and data from cyber threats.

At a time when hybrid working is normalised, many companies have taken to using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) that enables computers on the same corporate network to be linked together and accessed remotely even when employees are at home.

The online world is embroiled in a war. Such a statement may seem exaggerated and dramatic, but the figures paint a different picture. In 2021, the FBI received 847,376 cybercrime complaints, equalling $7 billion in losses.

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.

As interest rates continue to rise, it is more important than ever to put down a deposit on your new home to keep your monthly bond repayments down. Inflation in South Africa rose to 5.9% in April 2022 and by the end of May, the Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee increased the repo rate by 100 base points to 4.75%.

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.

Despite being in the business of risk mitigation, insurance firms themselves are often subject to risk in the form of insurance crime. Last year, the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA) found that South African life insurers detected 4,287 fraudulent and dishonest claims worth R787.6 million across the board.