{"id":30303,"date":"2019-11-20T10:50:59","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T10:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=30303"},"modified":"2019-11-22T10:38:06","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T10:38:06","slug":"digitisation-is-key-to-transforming-african-markets-but-so-is-it-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2019\/11\/20\/digitisation-is-key-to-transforming-african-markets-but-so-is-it-security\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Digitisation is key to transforming African markets, but so is IT security’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Markets across Africa are evolving, possibly more rapidly than ever before in history, and this is largely due to continuous advances in and the growing uptake of digital technology. In commemorating Africa Industrialisation Day and the 2019 theme of inclusive and sustainable industrial development,<\/em> Kaspersky experts share their views on two pillars crucial to Digital Transformation in African economies.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riaan Badenhorst, General Manager for Kaspersky in Africa, says that we undeniably\nlive in a changing digital world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDigital technologies allow forward-looking governments and businesses,\nalike, to reprioritise what have been persistent challenges similarly faced in\nmany African markets and, through innovation, turn these into opportunities \u2013\nfor investment, development and growth \u2013 to address largely untapped market\ndemand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, we must also be conscious that with embracing Digital Transformation\n\u2013 to charge the next wave of industrial and inclusive development \u2013 comes a\nhidden load of threats and challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bethwel Opil, Enterprise Sales Manager at Kaspersky in Africa agrees and explains that digital disruption and technology adoption is already having an impact across many regions in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuch trends will continue to play significant roles in shaping not only\nfixed infrastructures and services within connected cities, but also how things\nare made, how businesses operate, and how citizens will make and spend money,\nentertain themselves and engage with the world around them, well into the\nfuture,\u201d said Opil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, we must be cognisant of the fact that threats are just as\nprevalent \u2013 in number, design and severity \u2013 as we transition through what is\nbeing dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd, as the world we live in evolves and becomes ultra-connected, we\nneed to change our approach to how we protect literally everything around us.\nWhat we build and adopt today, and tomorrow, must become secure-by-design.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industrial networks are increasingly coming under fire<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digitalisation and adoption of Industry 4.0 standards are in the\npipeline for many industrial networks. In fact, globally, 81% of organisations\nsee operational network digitalisation as an important or very important task. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe challenge, however, is that for all the benefits that connected\ninfrastructure brings, there are associated cybersecurity risks,\u201d said\nBadenhorst. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite automation, the human factor can still put\nindustrial processes at risk, where employee errors or unintentional actions\nwere behind 52% of incidents affecting operational technology and industrial\ncontrol system (OT\/ICS) networks last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver and above the potential of human error, however, targeted cyberattacks\non industrial control systems is also an increasing challenge in Africa,\u201d added\nBadenhorst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd this has included cyberattacks on critical and service\ninfrastructure systems, such as power and water utility services to dam control\nfacilities, or even water treatment facilities, for example.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThreats of malware, ransomware and even advanced persistent threats remains as\npowerful as ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are seeing that\nlarger organisations, such as city authorities and enterprises, are the fastest\ngrowing targets for such attacks \u2013 and what\u2019s concerning is that in many cases\nthe owners are not aware that their facilities are exposed to cyber risks and\nhacking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd, in reality, the\nmore complex and connected industrial infrastructures become,the more advanced\nprotection these networks demand. Countering modern cyberthreats to critical\nand civil service infrastructures requires a 360-degree view of the threats and\nactors \u2013 and implementing the right defence solutions and programmes that help\nmaintain immunity to even previously unseen threats.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consumer purses are still being stalked<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFintech is a real phenomonem in Africa,\u201d said Opil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAdvances in Fintech bolster the promise of inclusion in financial\nmarkets by creating more widespread access, and therein more financial freedom\nfor citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fintech markets across Africa experienced a massive surge in growth in\nthe last two years and the continent is now home to 491 Fintech startups. From\nthese developments, Africa already has 122 million active users of mobile financial\nservices \u2013 more than half of the global total \u2013 and with ongoing expansions of\nthe mobile money value proposition and reforms underway in three of Africa\u2019s\nmost populated countries – Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt \u2013 this could lead to\nover 110 million new active mobile money accounts in the next five years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, with more pervasive access and activity comes increased\nthreats, as our research shows that malware designed to steal credentials and\nmoney from users\u2019 bank accounts is on the rise,\u201d says Opil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaspersky research highlights that mobile banking Trojans are one of the\nmost rapidly advancing, flexible and dangerous types of malware. These Trojans\nusually steal funds directly from mobile users\u2019 bank accounts, but sometimes\ntheir purpose is changed to steal other kinds of credentials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The malware generally looks like a legitimate app, such as a banking\napplication \u2013 and when a victim tries to reach their genuine bank app, the\nattackers gain access to that too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFintech \u2013 and the promise of access and financial freedom it enables –\nrepresents such an important evolution for African markets \u2013 and the rapid rise\nof mobile financial malware is a real threat to this promise,\u201d said Opil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFintech markets will undoubtedly continue to grow and coupled with\nthis; we need to see some reforms put in place \u2013 whether lead by governments,\nfinancial services providers or both \u2013 that will ensure proper defense\nmechanisms are being built into these services, as a standard, to better\nprotect users against a data breach.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As all market indicators show, attacks on critical infrastructure,\nindustrial and financial systems will remain major threats faced by a number of\nemerging nations in Africa \u2013 and that the attack methods, tools and techniques\nwill continue to grow in number, type and sophistication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor this reason, and in this ever-changing digital world \u2013 and the\nevolving threat landscape it has birthed \u2013 we at Kaspersky believe that the\nconcept of cybersecurity will soon become obsolete, and cyber-immunity will\ntake its place,\u201d said Badenhorst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe notion of cyber-immunity is about developing an ecosystem where everything connected is protected, where all systems, devices and services are secure-by-design. And, this should be the goal post for building digitally transformed, inclusive and sustainably secure connected markets in Africa.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Markets across Africa are evolving, possibly more rapidly than ever before in history, and this is largely due to continuous advances in and the growing uptake of digital technology. In commemorating Africa Industrialisation Day and the 2019 theme of inclusive and sustainable industrial development, Kaspersky experts share their views on two pillars crucial to Digital […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":30304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,7383,5,136,6,298,19,13,262],"tags":[11761,826,8350,859,388,389,998,679,1002,245,226,101,277,1988],"class_list":["post-30303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-digital-transformation","category-enterprise-security","category-industry-expert","category-insights","category-main-story-newsletter","category-regional-news","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-africa-industrialisation-day","tag-automation","tag-bethwel-opil","tag-cyberattacks","tag-cybersecurity","tag-digital-transformation","tag-digitalisation","tag-fintech","tag-fourth-industrial-revolution","tag-industry-4-0","tag-kaspersky","tag-malware","tag-ransomware","tag-riaan-badenhorst"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30303"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30306,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30303\/revisions\/30306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}