Global cyber security and digital privacy firm Kaspersky will present at the ITWeb Security Summit 2026 in Cape Town on 26 May, shedding light on cyber security pain points that local organisations continue to experience.
Omar Amin, senior security researcher in the Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky, will present global and regional changes in the cyber threat landscape at the event.
The company will also unpack a variety of pain points of local organisations – including data leaks, ransomware, shadow AI, AI-powered social engineering and alert fatigue – and ways to address these issues.
“Cyber security is no longer just an IT concern – it’s a business-critical function that directly impacts resilience, revenue and long-term growth. We see huge demand for practical information on this topic,” said Chris Norton, GM for sub-Saharan Africa at Kaspersky.
AI dominates
Norton added that cyber criminals are increasingly using AI to enhance the effectiveness of their attacks.
“This allows them to accelerate routine activities such as cracking passwords, developing malware, identifying and extracting valuable data from compromised networks without detection, creating convincing audio and video deepfakes, and generating highly personalised phishing e-mails using insights from a target’s social media presence,” he said.
ITWeb Security Summit 2026
To learn more about defending organisations against today’s evolving cyber threats, register for ITWeb Security Summit Cape Town 2026 or ITWeb Security Summit 2026 in Johannesburg, where global and local experts will unpack the latest security trends and solutions.
Norton pointed out that AI technologies face many of the same security risks as traditional software.
“Threat actors can steal training datasets, insert malicious code into AI development pipelines or exploit vulnerabilities within AI systems. It’s also common to see fake or unofficial versions of popular AI tools, such as apps, websites or chatbots, used to spread malware or harvest user data,” he added.
Kaspersky said the uncontrolled use of public AI tools, or 'shadow AI', is an underestimated risk.
In these cases, sensitive data may be shared without IT oversight or proper safeguards. Additionally, the rise of locally deployed AI agents, such as OpenClaw, introduces new layers of security concern.
Supply chain issue
The supply chain is another acute concern in cyber security. The more interconnected organisations become, the more their attack surface expands.
Kaspersky research showed that 31% of enterprise businesses globally had been affected by a supply chain attack in the past 12 months – more than any other type of cyber threat.
In addition, trusted relationship attacks affected a quarter of companies globally.
Norton said that in industrial environments, digitalisation connects machines, systems and processes through IOT, cloud platforms and analytics, improving efficiency and reducing downtime. However, it also introduces challenges in integration, data management and cyber security, requiring unified visibility and control across IT, OT and IIOT systems.
“Effective cyber security is the result of a balanced approach that brings together educated people, well-defined processes and robust cyber security solutions. Organisations that invest in awareness for their employees and dedicated training for IT specialists, that have elaborated IT policies and incident response plans, and that deploy security solutions giving them clear vision of what is happening in their IT infrastructure, are better positioned to maintain resilience in an increasingly complex digital landscape,” he added.
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