Cybercrime South Africa
Only 20% of Cybersecurity Workforce Are Women Despite Industry Skills Deficit
Image sourced from OpportunitiesNB. “Diversity is more than gender. It is race, culture, ability and country. It is mixing up the talent pool and adding in the unique insights and perspectives that different people from different walks of life bring to create teams that are more engaging and innovative,” opines Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy & Evangelist at KnowBe4 AFRICA. “It will also go a very long way towards filling the very real and very large security skills hole that is growing wider every day.” According to Collard, diversity is a critical and strategic step that the cybersecurity industry depends on to ensure longevity and ongoing security capability. “Women only make up about 20% of the current cybersecurity workforce and yet one of the top pain points for the CISO is th...
Preventing Ransomware Attacks: Top 9 Things to Keep in Mind
Sourced from Kaspersky Ransomware attacks have become a massive problem for almost every industry and every organization size. Recently, South Africa’s port authority Transnet was struck by a massive ransomware attack that left the country’s ports crippled for nearly a week. What is a Ransomware Attack? Ransomware is a specific type of malware that holds data hostage in exchange for a ransom. As an attack methodology, it has the potential to cause severe damage. Phishing emails are a common delivery method, but ransomware can also be spread through drive-by downloading, which is when a user visits a website that’s infected. Advanced attacks take seconds to compromise endpoints, and ransomware attacks take seconds to damage your systems and infrastruc...
Ports in SA Have Mostly Returned to Operations Following Transnet Cyberattack
Image sourced from News24. Ports in South Africa have mostly returned to normal operations, according to the country’s government. Last week, SA’s port operations authority, Transnet, was struck by a massive ransomware attack that crippled its digital systems leaving South Africa’s key container terminal in disarray. “The return to operations is good news for the economy, as the Transnet ports and rail system are the backbone of the economy,” the ministry for public enterprises shared in a statement on Wednesday. Transnet was left with no choice but to declare force majeure following the cyberattack on 22 July 2021. Force majeure is a legal clause that wavers any liability from Transnet for not being able to provide promised services for its clients. The clause is usually reserved for “act...
Transnet Declares ‘Force Majeure’ After Crippling Cyber Attack
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Awareness and Training Are Key in Defending Your Company from Blended Cyber-Threats
Image sourced from Finance Times. While blended cybersecurity threats are not new, they are fairly sophisticated and multi-staged in nature, meaning that they are difficult to protect against and can pose a considerable threat to organisations’ IT environments. A blended threat typically uses and exploits multiple vulnerabilities in an attack chain, says Brian Pinnock, Senior Director of Sales Engineering (EMEA) at Mimecast, adding that the severity of a blended threat will depend on the specific vulnerabilities that are targeted. “For example, a threat actor or cybercriminal will launch a phishing campaign against an organisation by sending emails with infected links that redirect to malicious websites. When a user clicks on these links, they could download a piece of malware like a Troja...
Surging DDoS Attacks Drive Growing Demand for Third Party Protection Services
Image sourced from Shutterstock. As the global workforce largely shifted to work-from-home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, reliance on online services soared. Many businesses were able to successfully pivot to this new normal as remote connectivity allowed access to vital systems and data. But as is often the case, no good deed goes unpunished. As the latest NETSCOUT Threat Intelligence Report shows, cybercriminals have exploited new vulnerabilities created by remote work across a wide variety of vertical industries. Making matters worse, perpetrators no longer have to be particularly technology-savvy in order to pull off attacks. Today, it is easy and relatively inexpensive to access sophisticated attack tools via for-hire services: A cottage industry has sprung ...
Inside the Mind of Cybercriminals – How Threat Actors Think
Cybercriminals come in many different flavours, but the majority of them are in it for one thing: financial pay-off. They want the money that comes with offering their tools or services, selling stolen data, extortion like ransomware or plain fraud. And they all have one thing in common – your organisation is on their radar. This is why, says Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy and Evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa, it is critical to understand how cyber criminals operate, the tools they use and the approaches they take to embed robust security within the organisation. “With ransomware going rampant and victim organisations paying up to millions of U.S. dollars to the extortionists, this problem is just going to get worse. The U.S. government recently announced that ransomware is a national cybe...
Cybersecurity Is More than A Tech Problem – It’s a Business Problem Too
Image sourced from Finance Times. A concerning number of South African companies are not prepared for the inevitability of a cyberattack despite the significant financial and reputational risks, according to Ryan Mer, MD, eftsure Africa, a Know Your Payee (KYP) platform provider. “Too few senior managers view cybersecurity as a business problem and not just a technology problem,” he says. “The reality is cybersecurity is very much a business consideration. CEOs and CFOs will eventually face critical questions such as: How much money do we spend on cybersecurity? Do we change key processes? How do we create awareness and change company culture? Do we put security ahead of operational functionality? What is the role of internal processes and staff on data security and integrity?.” Mer adds t...
6 Urgent Steps Companies Need to Take to Ensure POPIA Compliance
Sourced from Europa EU. The eleventh hour is upon businesses who are not POPIA (Protection of Personal Information Act) compliant. The effective date of 1 July is upon us. Your business should have already started its compliance journey, as it will at least help lessen the risk of cybersecurity breaches. Securing your data will help your business be in good standing with local and international partners. This will also enhance the reputation of your business and exempt you from fines and non-compliance. Here are six steps your business can take before 01 July to be POPIA compliant: 1. Encrypt Everything One of the major requirements under POPIA is to ensure that you apply Generally Accepted Information Security Protocols. While these requirements are not the same for all organisations, som...
Confidential Computing – Why Privacy Should be the Heart of Digital Experiences
Image sourced from Intel. In this past year, the consumer experience came to the forefront. As we faced various stages of lockdowns, we turned to online banking, seeing our doctors remotely, running our businesses using technology and socialising through a screen. Digital interactions became a part of our lives – ever-present and normalised as we navigated changes swept in by this pandemic. As our digital interaction became seamless and permeated through every aspect of our lives, privacy continued to be top of mind. We carried out our lives predominantly online – making many of us more vulnerable to fraudsters. As we navigated living our lives digitally, data theft dominated 2020 as the most common attack in the Middle East and Africa. Across the region, data theft and leaks accounted for...
What is POPIA and What Does it Mean for Cybersecurity
With an inundation of information from all angles regarding The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), and the 1 July commencement date quickly approaching, organisations could be forgiven for feeling more than a little overwhelmed. Emmanuel Tzingakis, Technical Lead for Trend Micro Sub-Saharan Africa, contemplates how POPIA can assist organisations to secure their data and be better enabled to handle any potential cyber threats. What is POPIA? With personal information becoming a hot commodity on the dark web it is critical to understand exactly how to protect data from cybercriminals. A recent global survey revealed that 79% of organisations experienced disruptions, financial loss or other setbacks due to a lack of cyber preparedness in 2020. As work from home strateg...
Cybersecurity and Data Protection Laws Urgently Needed Across Africa
The pandemic has driven home the high value of personal data to the global economy, while also highlighting its vulnerability to abuse and attack. In response, governments around the world have been reviewing their data privacy and protection laws and regulations, including in South Africa and Ghana. Global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky recently noted that cyberattacks are set to rise in African countries, especially in the key financial centres of South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. The cybersecurity firm noted that rapidly evolving digital techniques had led to an increased risk of Advanced Persistent Threats and hacking-for-hire events in Africa. South Africa In South Africa, the Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Act was signed into law by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in early June 2...
