cybersecurity Archives - Page 2 of 3

22Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Tech

ESET’s Intelligent Solutions Updated for Greater Online Protection

Heading into the festive season, it is more important than ever to ensure that computer and smartphone users are protected from increases in brute force attacks, instances of banking malware, and cryptocurrency threats. ESET, the global cybersecurity leader, has launched a new version of its consumer security line-up, which does just that along with its brand new ESET HOME feature. This web or Android-based platform is placed at the centre of the suite of ESET consumer solutions – allowing users to manage the security of all their Windows and Android devices from one seamless and convenient interface. Smartphones are central to people’s lives, with multiple internet-connected devices in their homes. Simple and efficient protection and management of these devices is critical amidst a ...

27Sep

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News, Tech

Another data breach rocks South Africa as details of 1.4 million South Africans gets leaked

We are currently living in a world that is being driven by technology. It is very rare to find any aspect of our daily lives that is not impacted by technology. Since Government imposed the National Lockdown – which aims to mitigate the worst effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic – there has been a significant move towards social distancing and essential services within the financial services industry have moved online. “Criminals have also moved online,” reports Manie van Schalkwyk, CEO of the Southern African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS), “it is estimated that there are 17 billion cyber attacks that take place around the world every day. Another South African company reports a data breach Over the past two years, South African companies have been reporting that they have been victims ...

22Sep

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News, Tech

You’re safe from ransomware – if you have R6.4bn lying around

Ransomware attacks have massively increased since the start of lockdown. Here’s what you need to know to protect your company. When hackers targeted Transnet’s computer systems in late July this year, logistics at major ports ground to a near-halt for the second time in a month (following the protests and looting) as the company was forced to switch to manual cargo processing. “The IT industry has seen a massive increase in ransomware attacks since the start of lockdown, when companies’ digital footprints increased as remote work became the norm,” says Marilyn Moodley, Country Leader for South Africa and WECA (West, East, Central Africa) at SoftwareONE. Problematically, many organisations unfortunately only realise too late that ransomware protection is a business issue and not an IT is...

29Jun

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech, South Africa News

BEC Attacks: Who is legally responsible?

Business Email Compromise (BEC) and cyber attacks are on the increase worldwide. Conveyancing firms, their clients, and other organisations effecting many large non-recurring type transactions are particularly vulnerable to BEC fraud. Ryan Mer, Managing Director, eftsure Africa, a Know Your Payee™ (KYP) platform provider says gaps in organisations’ payment systems not only pose massive financial and reputational risks, but can have serious legal implications as well. According to a global survey conducted by Mimecast Cyber Security Services in 2020, six out of ten companies globally were infected with ransomware and there was a 64% increase in email threats. An Accenture report from May 2020 confirms South Africa had the third most cybercrime victims globally, resulting in losses toppin...

14Jun

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News, Tech

Cybersecurity is more than a tech issue – it’s a business problem too

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, Managing Director, 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. 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?”, he says. Mer adds that because cyber...

11Jun

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Tech

Cisco Study Reveals Top Cybersecurity Considerations for SMEs in 2021

Three Factors Highlighted as Crucial to Achieving Desired Security Outcomes: Enabling Business, Managing Risk and Operating Efficiently Cisco has published its 2021 SMB Security Outcomes Study, a derivative of Cisco’s flagship cybersecurity report, 2021 Security Outcomes Study, highlighting what SMB leaders are doing to thrive in today's ever-evolving threat landscape, as well as offering actionable insights on where they should focus their digitization, security planning and cyber defense efforts in the year ahead. The double-blind study is based on a survey of over 850 regional IT and security professionals from small (50 to 249 employees) and midsize (250 to 499 employees) organizations in 25 countries from the Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia (EMEAR). The report examines how sec...

8Jun

By Baker McKenzieNo Comments

Ghana News, South Africa News, Tech

Implementation of cybersecurity and data protection law urgent across Africa

South Africa recently enacted cybersecurity law Darryl Bernstein, Partner and Head of Dispute Resolution, and Janet MacKenzie, Partner and Head of Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg 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. 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 Advan...

2Jun

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Tech

Cisco Talos Finds Nearly 70% of Ransomware Attacks Result from Cybercrime Tools Widely Available for Purchase

Known as ‘Commodity Trojans’, ransomware attacks often available on the Dark Web are effective against systems with patching and endpoint vulnerabilities. Between late 2020 and early 2021, actors targeted industries including education, healthcare, energy and utilities, government, and more. Cisco Talos Incidence Response has been responding to a growing number of incidents involving the Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities from Hafnium and has engaged in several incident response engagements in which organizations unknowingly downloaded trojanized updates to the widely deployed SolarWinds. For the seventh quarter in a row, Cisco Talos Incident Response (CTIR) has observed ransomware dominating the threat landscape. The top variants between November 2020 and January 2021 were Ryuk and ...

22Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Tech

Cisco Report Finds That Cryptomining Malware Activity Affected 69% of Customers in 2020

News Summary: Nearly 90 percent of organizations had at least one user attempt to connect to a phishing site, most likely by clicking a link in an email. 70 percent of organizations had users that were served malicious browser ads. 51 percent of organizations encountered ransomware-related activity. Cisco has today published its DNS Security Report, which analyzes malicious DNS activity and threats that occurred between January and December of last year. The report examines data from Cisco Umbrella, the company's cloud-based network security platform, finding that cryptomining malware affected a vast majority of customers in 2020, generating substantial amounts of malicious DNS traffic, while taking up precious computing resources. During a year in which security issues have becom...

ThreatQuotient-sponsored 2021 SANS Cyber Threat Intelligence survey reveals impact of COVID

9Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Tech

ThreatQuotient-sponsored 2021 SANS Cyber Threat Intelligence survey reveals impact of COVID

Respondents to the survey indicate their usage of CTI changed significantly during 2020, influenced by sharp rise in COVID-related phishing and ransomware attacks. ThreatQuotient™, a leading security operations platform innovator, announced the results of the 2021 SANS Cyber Threat Intelligence survey. The spike in cyber breaches in the past year, compounded by COVID-related attacks, has only increased the importance of Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) in the past year. The survey, sponsored by ThreatQuotient, explores the state of play in the global use of CTI and outlines why the difficulties of the past year have contributed to the continued growth and maturity of CTI. "CTI is a key tool that can help regional businesses understand the intent of threat actors as they plan and conduct ma...