{"id":717110,"date":"2023-09-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=717110"},"modified":"2023-09-08T17:21:01","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T15:21:01","slug":"alarm-bells-over-cybercrime-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/717110\/alarm-bells-over-cybercrime-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Alarm bells over cybercrime in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>South African companies continue to suffer cybercrimes, with many only introducing preventative measures after it is too late. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cybercrimes have increased in recent years, and private and public companies in South Africa have been targeted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development was hit by a ransomware attack in 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To make matters worse, the Information Regulator recently gave the Department a R5 million fine for not renewing its antivirus software, which would have flagged the attack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aon South Africa&#8217;s 2023 Cyber Risk Survey for South Africa has thus provided insight into the cyber practices used by South African companies in many market segments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe survey offers commentary on the future direction of cybersecurity, given the rapidly evolving manner of the risk, its solutions and legislative policies, to provide forward-looking guidance to businesses from a South African perspective,\u201d said Zamani Ngidi,&nbsp;Cyber Solutions Senior Client Manager at Aon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The survey found the following: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>22% of respondents suffered a cyber incident in the past five years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Furthermore, 67% of participants deploy a cyber risk management tool.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Only 50% of respondents have a board-level cyber champion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>72% of participants purchase cyber insurance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>However, one of the biggest concerns expressed by Aon was that companies are likely to only strengthen their cyber security following a cyber incident. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Zamani-Ngidi-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Zamani-Ngidi-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-717136\" width=\"241\" height=\"321\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Zamani-Ngidi-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Zamani-Ngidi-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Zamani-Ngidi-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Zamani-Ngidi-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Zamani-Ngidi-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 241px) 100vw, 241px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Zamani Ngidi from Aon. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p> \u201cWe question whether companies that have suffered a cyber-attack would have better cyber risk management practices in place than those who did not suffer an attack,&#8221; said Zamani. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The findings in the survey show that of the 22% of respondents that have suffered a cyber-attack, all subsequently have the full stack of cyber-related covers and tools in place as opposed to their counterparts, with less than 50% uptake on mitigation controls.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The survey also showed that only 43% of South African companies with revenue less than R100 million have a cyber risk management tool, compared to the 80% for companies with over R100 million in revenue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt points to two possible scenarios, where smaller companies are finding the cost of proactive risk management too high, or it could point to a perception that the risk is only reserved for companies with a higher revenue bracket,\u201d Ngidi added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/715920\/new-government-surveillance-laws-for-south-africa-are-coming\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New government surveillance laws for South Africa are coming<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aon says businesses in South Africa often act too late when it comes to cybersecurity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":642179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9878],"tags":[9906,26],"class_list":["post-717110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-aon","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717110"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":717436,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717110\/revisions\/717436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}