There is a pressing need for organisations to prioritise and strengthen their cybersecurity architecture, according to a new report from McAfee Enterprise and FireEye.
The findings of the report, Cybercrime in a Pandemic World: The Impact of Covid-19, indicate that during the pandemic, 81% of global organisations experienced increased cyber threats with 79% experiencing downtime due to a cyber incident during a peak season.
As the holiday season approaches, supply chain and logistics, e-commerce and retail, and the travel industry see predictable increases in consumer and business activity – making them more vulnerable to cyber threats and leaving business, employee and consumer data at risk.
In South Africa, the threat was even greater, with 90% of organisations experiencing increased cyber threats during Covid-19, and 85% of them experiencing down time due to cybersecurity risks during peak seasons, such as Black Friday, and the retail high season ahead of Christmas.
“It is imperative all businesses prioritize security technology to keep them protected, especially during the peak holiday season,” says Bryan Palma, CEO of the newly-combined company. “Ninety-four percent of IT professionals want their organisation to improve its overall cyber readiness. Businesses must do more and need an intelligent security architecture for managing today’s sophisticated threat landscape.”
Carlo Bolzonello, country manager for McAfee in South Africa, comments: “Ninety-seven percent of South African IT professionals say that their organisations could place a greater emphasis on overall cyber-readiness and strategies to prevent, protect and react to potential threats.
“This is really critical in the South African context, as it shows that local security professionals understand their weaknesses, and they have identified what they need for them to do their jobs better.”
While South African IT professionals know cyber threats have intensified, the findings prove that organisations have not effectively prioritized security during Covid-19:
* 60% saw an increase in online/web activity;
* 37% have had their technology and security budgets reduced;
* 66% have suffered from downtime due to a cyber concern, costing some over $100,000; and
* 80% find maintaining a fully staffed security team/SOC even more challenging during peak periods.
There are ways for organisations to be proactive and actionable against cybercrime, such as implementing security measures and industry-wide cybersecurity requirements, providing cybersecurity awareness training for employees, and developing prevention and response plans. In addition, enterprises and commercial business can implement cloud-delivered security.