A 2021 research conducted by Liquid Intelligent Technologies has revealed that over 90% of IT decision makers in Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe have accelerated their Cyber Security. This is due to the substantial emergence of digital ways of working.
The study further established some of the main concerns about Cyber Security threats and the most significant impacts of digital breaches on an organizational level. A critical insight from the research suggests that 79% of businesses from all three countries attribute an increase in Cyber Security threats to remote working.
Data breaches like data extortion, data leakage and data disclosure constitute almost 71% of the cyber-attacks for Kenyan businesses. Moreover, over 70% of South African and Zimbabwean organizations consider email attacks like Phishing the most prominent digital threats.
The participants from the research also indicated an increased consumption of Cloud-based services this year, with the numbers reaching 96% in South Africa, 95% in Kenya and 75% in Zimbabwe. This comes from a hike in Microsoft Office 365, Teams, Zoom, Google Workspace, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services.
However, Cyber Security threats and concerns seem to be increasing as the workforce continues to shift to working through digital platforms. According to the research, managing user access to information, data loss and recovery, visibility and control of data, and compliance challenges remain some of the biggest concerns for organizations. Almost 80% of organizations that participated in this research from Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya agree that Cyber Security threats have increased over the past year.
According to the study, an emerging trend for 2021 is that 53% of the respondents emphasize security and data protection as significant concerns. Some of the biggest security concerns cited by businesses using Cloud services are managing user access to information, data loss, recovery and lack of security controls made available by Cloud providers.
Speaking at the report unveiling, Ignus de Villiers, Group Head of Cyber Security, Liquid Intelligent Technologies commented, “The result of our research confirms that Cyber Security should be at the centre of every business conversation and emphasizes the need to establish an appropriate Cyber Security Framework that matches the business environment.”
The 2021 research from Liquid takes a deep dive into the current and emerging trends for Cyber Security to help businesses understand the dynamic nature of the Cyber Security threat landscape.