SA businesses watching their backs for cyberattack in days – Gadget
More than a
third of South Africa IT decision-makers (35%) are on high alert for a cyber-attack
on their businesses within days.
This is a
core finding of a new research study entitled The State of Enterprise Security in South Africa 2019, conducted by
World Wide Worx in partnership with Trend Micro and VMware. It surveyed IT
decision-makers at 220 enterprises across all industries in South Africa on the
centrality of cybersecurity in business strategy, the vulnerability of
businesses, and security compliance.
It found
that while 35% believe an attack will happen within a few days, a further 31%
of businesses expected an attack with the year. Fewer than one in five IT decision-makers
in SA enterprises think they are safe from attack in the next two years.
Just over
half, 57%, of businesses say they will detect evidence of a malicious breach
within a few minutes. However, almost half of businesses (43%) won’t know they’ve
been compromised until a few hours or longer after a security breach. Such
businesses may be in for a big shock. Ransomware and other file destroying
malware may corrupt almost every file on a user’s computer within a few hours,
which means any response would be too late.
Surprisingly,
IT decision-makers are willing to accept responsibility. Half of the
respondents (51%) says they would blame their own departments in the event of a
breach.
“This
finding shows IT decision-makers are cognisant of how important security is to
their role, as half of IT decision-makers would accept accountability for a
data or security breach in their organisations,” says Indi Siriniwasa, Vice
President Sub-Saharan Africa at Trend Micro.
The survey
shows a disconnect between who would be aware of data breaches and who should
be aware of data breaches. Over a third of IT decision-makers (36%) reported
that the IT department would be the most aware of the actions to take after a
data breach, while over half of IT decision-makers (54%) reported that their
Chief Information Officers should be the most aware of how to navigate the
organisation after a data breach.
“We were
astonished when we found that CIOs don’t lead the organisation’s response to a
data breach,” says Lorna Hardie, Regional Director Sub-Saharan Africa at
VMware. “This finding shows that organisations still have a long way to go
in terms of connecting a CIO’s strategy to that of the IT department.”
The biggest
shortcoming in cybersecurity preparedness was outdated software, with an
enormous 77% of IT decision-makers reporting that it makes their organisations
highly vulnerable. In terms of additional vulnerability factors, senior
management not understanding the risk slots in close behind, indicating a
massive need for education and a need for a new approach to security, where it
is an intrinsic part of the systems deployed by business.
“All
of this then leads us to imagine that the IT departments must feel under siege,
yet they are supremely confident in their ability to protect companies,”
says Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of World Wide Worx. “Any question
relating to their capacity and capability is met with resounding confidence,
suggesting that they are either over-confident, or supremely arrogant. At best,
we would say that they don’t want to be perceived as falling down on the job
and can cope regardless of the obstacles in their way and the threat out there.
“Although
99% says they are confident about protecting the company, the picture
disintegrates when asked if they have the skills to do so. Almost half – 45% –
agree that they don’t have the skills to protect the company, this disconnect
suggests overconfidence in their ability to protect the business,” adds Goldstuck.
Says
Hardie: “There is a huge need for senior financial decision-makers to learn
that an ounce of data breach prevention is worth a pound of lost data and
productivity. Interestingly the research highlights that there will be
breaches, that is a fact, but it is how business mitigates these risks going
forward with a modern approach to security where we aren’t chasing each breach,
but instead shift to a model where we build intrinsic security into everything
– the application, the network, essentially everything that connects and
carries data.”
Siriniwasa
concurs: “The report reveals a stark trend in how South African IT
decision-makers protect their corporate networks to gives a clear sense where
South African companies need to remain strong and areas of IT security where
they need to work on. At this stage, strong information and data security are
non-negotiable, but ensuring this requires a cultural shift towards security
awareness and collaboration across all parts of the business. Not only does
business need to invest in security solutions that are pervasive and intrinsic,
but they also have to invest in the right skills and people to drive best
practice forward.”
Gloss