21/08/2024
Exponential advances in technology have led to an increased demand for companies seeking integrations that facilitate a competitive advantage to an extent previously unthought of. As companies are always on the lookout for the next innovation be it in process, service, customer relations, productivity or efficiency, their technology portfolio expands in size and complexity.
This growth in the number of services, tools, software, infrastructure etc that companies accumulate introduces a cascading array of intricate details that can easily fall into the blind spot of even the most competent engineers. The equalising effect brought by technology in allowing the smallest of companies to compete with large players in the market not only has led to an increase in technology adoption but also the number of potential victims of cybercrime.
South Africa's rapid digitization efforts has unlocked a great deal of opportunities for institutions and citizens alike in a way that has been one of our best weapon against the onslaught of inequality, poverty and unemployment; however, in a hyper connect world, an ever increasing threat landscape is an occupational hazard and one we always have to take a proactive stance against.
The lucrative nature of cybercrime presents a great incentive structure for threat actors who take advantage of lowered barriers to entry allowed by automated systems, machine learning and artificial intelligence. The growing sophistication of cyber attacks further complicate efforts towards defence, monitoring, response and mitigation which comes with an increased floor of the required expertise and competence to fight against highly equipped and resourced adversaries.
For small businesses on one hand, the technology that is seen as a great enabler and equaliser has now introduced a new dimension of inequality, one almost entirely centred around cybersecurity. One the other hand larger companies find themselves neck deep in a quagmire of complexity brought by legacy systems, inefficient integrations and siloed infrastructure, a great burden of technical dept waiting to be modernised, architected and accounted for especially within the scope of cybersecurity.
Institutions today are interconnected to the extent that their attack surface extends far beyond the borders of one company with supply chain attacks growing evermore frequent. The value in a zero trust approach to cybersecurity is in how it warrants regular technology audits and training sessions for employees which ensure cyber resilience especially with recent events having shown how even the largest companies are vulnerable to cyber attacks enabled by failure to address the very basic and foundational aspects of cyber security.
What is the biggest cyber threat to South African businesses? Is it ransomware? Business Email Compromise? The biggest cyber threat is a lack in cyber due diligence which would ensure that at the most basic the default configs are changed, licenses and software are up to date, threat landscape awareness and asset management, robust policies, frameworks and procedures; lastly, the accountability to ascertain the abovementioned.
