Oliver Niemandt, general manager and head of sales, Cloud On Demand.
The pressure on South African organisations is no longer coming from one direction. Identity risk, faster exploitation and rising compliance expectations are colliding at the same time.
There is a familiar pattern in many organisations. Security gets serious attention after a phishing incident, a compromised account, a failed audit point or a piece of ransomware somewhere in the organisation's ecosystem. The response is often urgent and well intentioned, but it is still reactive. In 2026, that approach is becoming harder to defend.
The threat picture has shifted in a way that should change how business leaders think about cyber risk. The problem is not simply that attacks are increasing. It is that the methods are becoming faster, less visible and more closely tied to ordinary business activity. Credentials are stolen quietly. Access is abused rather than forced. Misconfigurations and exposed services create openings long before anyone notices. That makes cyber security less about perimeter defence and more about operational readiness.
Why identity and readiness now matter more
The role of identity in particular has become difficult to ignore. IBM’s 2026 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index found that exploitation of public-facing applications rose 44% year on year, while the report argues that foundational controls, especially around identity, remain central even as AI changes the speed and scale of attacks.(1)
That matters because many businesses still treat identity as a technical control rather than a business risk. In practice, compromised identities can become the shortest path to customer data, financial systems and collaboration environments.
That picture is reinforced by South African telemetry. ESET’s February 2026 threat report for South Africa found that phishing accounted for 45.7% of all detected cyber threats locally in the second half of 2025, with social engineering remaining the primary attack vector despite growing attention on AI-enabled threats.(2) This is exactly where partner-led security services, enabled through Cloud On Demand, become important, combining threat intelligence with practical response and user-level protection.
For organisations here, that is an important reminder. The most relevant threats are not always the most dramatic or the most fashionable. They are often the ones that exploit ordinary behaviour, weak access discipline and inconsistent controls.
From threat response to resilience strategy
This is why the more useful question in 2026 is not whether an organisation has security tools in place. It is whether the business is prepared to operate securely as complexity grows. That includes identity governance, visibility across cloud environments, stronger backup and recovery posture, policy consistency and a clearer understanding of where compliance obligations intersect with operational risk.
From a channel perspective, that changes the conversation as well. Cyber security can no longer be positioned as a narrow product discussion or a once-off remediation exercise. Customers need structured support that helps them prepare, monitor and respond over time. That creates a more strategic role for partners, especially those able to combine vendor capabilities with practical enablement and ongoing service delivery.
That is where Cloud On Demand and its partner ecosystem have real relevance. The value is not only in access to security technologies. It is in helping partners shape offerings around resilience, governance and readiness in a way that customers can adopt and sustain. In a market where compliance pressure is rising and threat methods are becoming more evasive, that support matters.
The organisations that will look strongest in 2026 are unlikely to be the ones chasing every new threat headline. They will be the ones that have treated cyber security as a readiness discipline, built around visibility, identity, recovery and accountability before the next incident forces the issue.
If your organisation is reviewing its cyber security posture for 2026, or looking to strengthen how you position security, compliance and resilience with customers, speak to the Cloud On Demand team. Visit www.cloudondemand.co.za or e-mail salesteam@cloudondemand.co.za.
Sources:
(1) 2026 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index: Making the case for securing identities, AI‑enhanced detection and proactive risk management
https://www.ibm.com/think/x-force/threat-intelligence-index-2026-securing-identities-ai-detection-risk-management
(2) ESET Threat Report: Phishing and Social Engineering Are The Most Significant Risks for South African Organisations
https://www.eset.com/za/about/newsroom/press-releases-za/press-releases/eset-threat-report-phishing-and-social-engineering-are-the-most-significant-risks-for-south-african-organisations/
