South Africans can expect to see at least one big public ransomware attack in 2017.
This is one of the predictions being made by IDC Sub-Saharan Africa, says research manager Jon Tullett.
The attack is expected to be against a public sector organisation, but could equally strike a financial institution, he says.
Tullett points out that security is becoming more of an issue than ever, and new innovative technologies are opening up new attack vectors.
In fact, security is the fastest growing IT discipline today. It currently accounts for spending of $73-billion, and this is expected to grow to $100-billion by 2020.
The increasing pace of change means that there are many more users and apps today than ever before – and they are growing exponentially.
Importantly, says Tullett, the gap between technology and the business is narrowing. “If your access to the cloud goes down your business will suffer.
“But your future business strategy is now completely dependent on technology.”
The innovation accelerators that are driving digital transformation include cloud, big data/analytics, social business and mobility.
“The bad news is that the bad guys tend to be adopting the new technologies before the rest of us,” Tullett says.
