Tag: ESET Southern Africa

South African businesses have evolved alongside the reality of the country’s physical infrastructure challenges. Organisations instinctively build redundancies for power. These include solar installations, battery backup solutions, UPS systems and generators. When the grid fails, the failover system kicks in. Similarly, most businesses have multiple connectivity failovers because they understand operational disruption intimately.

The enterprise Goliath is worried about its suppliers. These Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are underprepared. They are also disproportionately targeted. In fact, 43% of cyber-attacks target their digital front door. In addition, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) holds large organisations legally responsible when a supplier is breached.

EssilorLuxottica and Meta sold more than seven million Ray-Ban and Oakley-branded smart glasses in 2025. Sales of these intelligent wearables increased almost threefold compared with 2023. As a result, the category moved into the mainstream.

At the start of 2024, a finance worker in Hong Kong at a multinational firm joined what appeared to be a routine video call with senior leadership. The call included people who looked and sounded like the company’s UK-based CFO and other executives. However, AI-generated deepfakes had created these individuals. As a result, the employee authorised several transfers to different bank accounts worth around $25 million.

Cybercriminals don’t just target systems. They target people. Nearly 70% of cyber incidents stem from preventable human mistakes. This makes an untrained workforce the weakest link in any organisation. Enter gamified learning. This approach to cybersecurity training replaces routine compliance checklists with story-driven challenges based on real-life scenarios.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms have fast-tracked automation in South Africa’s insurance industry. However, these solutions also introduce unique cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Specifically, adversarial attacks can compromise the accuracy of risk assessments, bypass fraud detection and disrupt claims processing. Without proper digital security in place, this can lead to compliance violations and severely damage the reputation of local insurers.

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.