• The number of in office workers in South Africa has only increased 3 percent since 2021.
• Despite this only 46 percent said investing in VPNs and secure networking was a priority.
• There is a need for decision-makers to better understand the threats they face so as to properly direct investment.

Much of the research regarding cybercrime has a global focus. While this has its benefits, there is a need for African businesses to be able to focus their cybersecurity efforts in order to effectively guard themselves against threats.

In a bid to facilitate this, Liquid C2 has published a report that gives insight into the threat landscape faced by businesses in South Africa, Kenya and Zambia. As Liquid C2 chief operations officer Winston Ritson put it, “Shared knowledge is better for all of us.”

Looking at South Africa, there is a definite increase in the number of cybersecurity incidents according to Group Head of Liquid C2 Cyber Security, Ignus de Villiers, however, there is also an increase in spending to defend against these attacks.

As many as 77 percent of local businesses surveyed by Liquid C2 said that cybersecurity incidents have increased over the last year.

One stat that jumped out at us during Liquid C2’s press conference this morning was the fact that the number of in-office employees has only increased 3 percent since 2021. This points to a popularity of a remote and hybrid working model in South Africa.

Where this presents some concern is a low investment as regards VPN and secure networking solutions.

Only 46 percent of businesses surveyed said they invested in VPNs and secure networking solutions which is concerningly low given how few in-office employees there are these days.

“Some respondents may be using solutions such as SASE rather than a VPN,” says De Villiers, highlighting that there are other solutions with which businesses can secure users.

“It’s important for users to protect their endpoint and connection. End users must access corporate services in a secure manner. This security is especially important when using public services.”

The major concern for the majority of companies in South Africa – 67 percent – is illegal access to data. This risk can be mitigated in a variety of ways but this is where the elephant in the room reveals itself.

In this report, Liquid C2 found that C-Suite executives lack the skills needed to engage with IT to understand threats the business faces and how to mitigate those threats.

As Kaspersky recently reported, most executives don’t understand the jargon IT teams may use to describe a problem. This extends further into the company though because all employees should understand what a potential breach, malware, phishing attack or other incident looks like.

The fact is that much like the rest of the world, the cybersecurity landscape in Africa is constantly evolving. Cybercriminals are targeting local businesses and if we are all able to stop attacks before they happen, we can prevent millions of Rands in damage.

This requires constant investment but now more than ever that investment needs to be focussed on addressing the relevant problems and reports such as this help businesses find that focus.

[Image – Kornél Máhl on Unsplash]