Cyber attacks are growing in both sophistication and frequency, with AI-powered threats on the rise.
This was highlighted by Jacques du Toit, CEO of Vox Telecom, during an interview with ITWeb at the Vox Cyber Security event in Johannesburg last week. He also emphasised the importance of cyber security awareness.
“We’re starting to see the speed and intensity of ransomware attacks increasing, while the level of education is actually scary. AI, combined with cyber attacks, is outpacing the ability of the average person to keep up.”
He said the event focused on education rather than product sales, aiming to establish an open platform to educate businesses of all sizes, from large enterprises to small, owner-managed enterprises, many of which remain vulnerable due to limited cyber security awareness and infrastructure.
Du Toit added that Vox hopes to foster a safe space for open dialogue, where victims of cyber attacks can share their experiences without fear of embarrassment. “The biggest problem we see is that customers who’ve been attacked are ashamed to talk about it,” he said. “But the more they share, the better we can all implement safeguards.”
Discussing the elevated risk surface introduced by high-speed connectivity, cloud adoption and digital dependence, Du Toit admitted that cyber security keeps him awake at night.
“The risk over the last five years has been elevated beyond anybody’s imagination. Our whole lives now live on the internet, from work to home, and that makes every organisation and individual a potential target.”
In a panel discussion facilitated by Johan Steyn, founder of AI For Business, industry experts cautioned that South African businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), remain dangerously unprepared for cyber attacks, despite the growing frequency and sophistication of incidents across the country.
The panel featured Pieter Nel, regional head: SADC at Sophos, Barry Kemp, MD at Nymbis and Ian Engelbrecht, senior manager: technical sales Africa at Veeam.
Nel said smaller businesses often assume they are too insignificant to be targeted. “Don’t think you’re untouchable. Attackers don’t care about your size. We’ve seen incidents where criminals knew exactly how much money was in the company’s bank account down to the last rand and still went after them.”
He added that these attacks, which are often financially motivated, can cripple small companies that lack robust security or backup systems. “We’ve seen ransomware cases where a business loses R500 000 and never recovers.”
Nel stressed that cyber security readiness begins with the right mindset. “If a hacker wants to get into a business, it will happen. You have to make sure you can prepare for it. That mindset is critical.” Nel added that many companies still underestimate their exposure and rely on outdated tools or lack the necessary skills to respond effectively when breaches occur.
Engelbrecht said many companies often don’t understand the real business impact of a cyber incident until it happens. He urged SMEs to take a hard look at the financial and operational impact of data loss or system downtime before it’s too late.
Engelbrecht explained that downtime is often the most immediate and visible consequence of a cyber incident, halting operations, disrupting logistics and cutting off customer services. “If your systems are down, your business stops,” he said. “Deliveries don’t happen, orders can’t be processed and revenue grinds to a halt. Downtime is not just an IT issue, it’s a business crisis.”
He warned that beyond lost productivity and revenue, companies face additional consequences when personal data is compromised. “What happens when the Information Regulator reaches out to you? What penalties will you face under POPIA, and how much damage will that do to your reputation?” he asked.
He said SMEs still see cyber security and backup solutions as optional costs rather than essential business continuity investments.
He highlighted a worrying pattern among SMEs, where spending on protection only happens after a breach or ransomware attack. “The reality is that a R100 000 investment in backup and recovery solutions can save you from a R5 million ransom demand,” he said.
He added that building data resilience and treating cyber security as a non-negotiable part of business continuity is essential. “Downtime and data loss aren’t just IT problems, they’re business problems,” Engelbrecht said. “If you plan for them now, you can avoid paying the real price later.”
Security in the cloud
In an interview with ITWeb, Kemp highlighted that while cloud adoption has grown rapidly, many companies still assume their providers handle all aspects of data protection.
“The biggest issue with the shared security model is companies understanding what their responsibility is versus what the cloud provider’s responsibility is,” Kemp said.
He explained that cloud providers typically manage the infrastructure and building blocks, but the data, virtual machines and applications running on those environments remain the customer’s responsibility. “Customers need to make sure they’ve got the right processes and procedures in place to look after their infrastructure and their machines within their responsibility domain,” he added.
Kemp also discussed the growing cyber risk of cloud misconfigurations and exposed APIs, urging companies not to assume that cloud automatically equals secure. “The same thought process that goes into securing an on-premises environment should be used for securing the cloud,” he noted.
Looking ahead, Kemp said the rise of AI workloads and edge computing is reshaping how security is approached. As users and applications spread across multiple environments, identity management and multifactor authentication are becoming central to cloud security.
“Even though it’s a bit more painful for staff members, multifactor authentication is worth its weight in gold,” Kemp said.
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