By now, millions of people globally have experienced one or more shifts in the way they work. As the world continues to revert to pre-Covid levels of operating, countless industries have returned to working on-site, while many have adopted hybrid models which have been widely welcomed by employees.
However, these shifts in how we work and where we work have left many people and organisations vulnerable to new and emerging cyber risks.
PwC’s newly launched Digital Trust Insights 2023: A South African Perspective report, reveals that several organisations across South Africa and the continent at large, listed cybercriminals, hackers and their competitors as the top three factors affecting their organisations. These sentiments are shared with thousands of executives at organisations globally, which is shared in its global Digital Trust Insights 2023 report.
Hamil Bhoora, PwC Africa’s cybersecurity competency leader, says: “Cybersecurity has become a highly sophisticated and dynamic field which requires businesses to rapidly adjust and improve their cybersecurity defences in order to detect and prevent cyber-criminals from compromising their organisations.
“This is clearly indicated in the survey results of our latest Digital Trust Insights survey where we see opportunities for business executives and cybersecurity professionals to stress that more work is required to protect their organisation from cybercrime.”
The survey, which was conducted globally by PwC, encompasses the results of over 3 500 business, security and IT leaders in various industries across more than 60 territories. Of these, 134 organisations in Africa participated, with 68 being South African-owned organisations.
Some of the report’s key findings from Africa are:
- 71% of organisations in South Africa and across Africa are seeing increases to their cyber budgets in the 2023 financial year.
- Since 2020, organisations globally, across Africa and South Africa said they were most impacted by increased exposure to cyber attacks due to an increase in digitisation.
- South African organisations say they expect third-party breaches, hack-and-leak operations and attacks on Operational Technology and Industrial Internet of Things to significantly increase in 2023, compared to 2022.
When asked what would make the biggest difference in transforming cybersecurity across their organisation in the next 12 to 18 months, respondents stated the following:
- South African organisations: leadership that drives cybersecurity throughout the organisation
- Organisations across Africa: educating the board on cyber risks
- Global organisations: ensuring all non-cybersecurity employees understand the potential cyber implications of their actions
Wandile Mcanyana, PwC South Africa cybersecurity partner, says: “With cybersecurity threats constantly evolving, there’s a prominent need for organisations to strengthen their detection, response and recovery capabilities. This includes regularly testing their preparedness as well as readiness should these threats materialise.
“Our global survey highlights that 46% of CEOs want to empower their organisation’s CISO to collaborate with the C-Suite on security in the next year. This is exactly what is needed to prepare for the tougher challenges that lie ahead.”