The pandemic has served to underscore the human-centric importance of the tech industry, where technology becomes a lifeline for our survival, connecting us to food, education, healthcare and work.
With the digital revolution around all businesses, small or large, human or artificial intelligence incorporations, organisations and governments rely on computerised systems to manage their day-to-day activities. Thus, cyber security is a primary goal to safeguard data from various online attacks or unauthorised access. A continuous change in technologies thus implies a parallel shift in data breaches, ransomware and hacks.
Did you catch the headline where a hacker claimed to have breached Russian media, then progressed to the Russian space agency? Imagine for a moment you are an 'anonymous hacker' − where would these ethical lines stop for you?
Technology companies have gathered to show the support and strength they hold, bringing a sense of realism to the field.
On-demand access to ubiquitous data means mobile platforms, remote work and other shifts increasingly hinge on high-speed access to universal and large data sets, exacerbating the likelihood of a breach.
The marketplace for web hosting services is expected to generate $183.18 billion by 2026. As a result, organisations collect more data about customers − everything from financial transactions, to electricity consumption, to social media views − to understand and influence purchasing behaviour and forecast demand more effectively. In 2021, on average, every person on Earth created 1.7 megabytes of data each second.
In the "digital next", trust and inclusivity have to become the cornerstones of progress.
At the same time, companies face stiffer compliance requirements due to growing privacy concerns and high-profile breaches. In addition, there are now talks of cross-border data flow regulations within Africa. Mitigating the cyber security risks of on-demand access to ubiquitous data requires four cyber security capabilities: zero-trust capabilities, behavioural analytics, elastic log monitoring and homomorphic encryption.
Using automation to combat increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks or embedding security in technology capabilities to address ever-growing regulatory scrutiny and resource gaps are additional avenues for companies.
Digital disruption is inevitable and will lead to rapid technology-driven change. As organisations make large-scale investments in technology, whether in the spirit of innovation or necessity, they must be aware of the associated cyber risks.
Attackers exploit the vulnerabilities that new technologies introduce, and even the best cyber controls rapidly become obsolete in this accelerating digital world. As a result, organisations that seek to position themselves most effectively for the next five years will need to take a relentless and proactive approach to build over-the-horizon defensive capabilities.
It's a common saying in the technology industry that good technology is invisible. The technology we use every day tends to be what we don't think about. So, sound technology has to be intuitive. There are pros and cons to this. It definitely helps people, the more intuitive it gets.
It expands horizons and brings in many more people who have never used technology before due to language barriers or know-how. But I also think at the same time it increases the responsibility on us, on the industry, to ensure we build it with much more commitment than we have in the past.
In the "digital next", trust and inclusivity have to become the cornerstones of progress. In addition, we have to grow a robust cyber security regime and create cyber security awareness. As remote work becomes the norm across industries, we are seeing a significant increase in cyber security threats worldwide.
In the hyper-digital world we live in, security has to be built into the design principles of innovation and development. It cannot be an afterthought. A robust regulatory framework around cyber security has to be developed, where global and local corporations can play a crucial role.
There are millions and millions of analogue companies that are just starting their digital transformation journey, and we need to ensure they internalise security in their design versus as an afterthought. This wakes us all up to the realisation that a digitised crisis like this can happen anywhere, anytime.
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