Despite the majority of South African cybersecurity experts in large organisations being happy with their current protection, they are constantly on the lookout for stronger and more flexible security solutions.
A new study – Improving resilience: cybersecurity through system immunity – conducted by Kaspersky, explored how organisations currently manage cybersecurity and how they are preparing for future challenges.
The research surveyed 850 IT professionals responsible for cybersecurity in large companies across Europe, the Americas, APAC, Russia, and the Middle East, Turkiye, and Africa (META) region including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt, and South Africa. These respondents represented a diverse range of industries and organisational levels offering a comprehensive view of current security postures and pain points.
The survey reveals that, despite high satisfaction levels – with 85% of experts surveyed from South Africa stating they are “satisfied” to “extremely satisfied” with their current protection – the desire for stronger and more adaptable defences remains widespread.
Although only 15% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with their cybersecurity measures, most recognise the need for improvement. Specifically, 65% believe there are “a few” or “some” areas that could be enhanced, while 35% advocate for significant upgrades.
When asked to identify the weakest aspects of their cybersecurity systems that they would like to improve, respondents from South Africa pointed to various operational and technical challenges. The most common issues included:
- Manual processes consuming excessive time (38%)
- Reactive protection lacking proactive threat detection (25%)
- Poor control over security policy implementation (25%)
- High risks of systemic collapse following breaches (25%)
- “Alert fatigue” (25%)
Among other critical weak sides of their current cybersecurity systems noted by respondents in South Africa were a shortage of skilled personnel (23%), overly complex IT/OT environments (20%), and outdated threat intelligence (15%). Additional concerns included limited or unclear security policy (18%) and the complexity of managing disparate solutions (15%).
These findings highlight the urgent need for streamlined intelligent security tools to address these vulnerabilities effectively.
The reliance on manual processes leads to increased operational overhead and delays in identifying and responding to threats, while the absence of proactive threat detection reduces the ability to prevent breaches before they occur. The management of multiple different security solutions leads to gaps in coverage, misconfigurations, and increased risk of oversight as security teams struggle to maintain an integrated, effective defence across diverse systems. The fragmentation hampers swift response times and increases the likelihood of overlooked vulnerabilities ultimately weakening the organisation’s overall security posture.
As organisations strive to strengthen their cybersecurity posture this research highlights that, alongside enhancing traditional cybersecurity solutions, vendors are working to develop innovative approaches: shifting from protecting inherently vulnerable software with applied security measures toward creating secure-by-design systems with innate resilience. Such systems are capable of safeguarding their core assets even when compromised, often with minimal or no additional cybersecurity spending.
“More and more organisations are beginning to understand that modern challenges require not just strong protection, but also a proactive and cohesive security strategy that strengthens every aspect of their digital landscape against potential breaches,” says Alexander Kostyuchenko, head of Technology Solutions Product Line at Kaspersky. “That’s why it is essential for companies to adopt a transformative approach, integrating advanced threat intelligence and streamlined processes – and applying reliable, all-encompassing solutions to protect their assets while ensuring operational continuity and building customer trust.”