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Is cyber security top of the agenda?

By Alison Job
Johannesburg, 25 Jun 2020

More employees are working remotely than ever before, leaving organisations and their data vulnerable as cyber security risks continue to rise.

ITWeb, in partnership with Skybox Security, is conducting a Cyber Security Survey to assess how South African organisations are protecting their users, data and IT infrastructure against cyber attacks.

"Security is no longer purely a compliance activity," says Simone Santana, regional director for South Africa at Skybox Security. “Implementing the right cyber security measures can offer the business a competitive advantage and even assist it on its transformation journey.”

She says the survey aims to understand what the maturity levels are in South African organisations' cyber transformation roadmap and whether organisations have visibility into their risk.

Santana believes that having a risk-based approach to the organisation’s security posture is key.

“An effective cyber security deployment should be based on common sense while addressing the required structure and approach, as well as an understanding of the business’ attack surface. Ensuring all these areas are maintained will achieve immediate results early on in thesecurity transformation process, creating a reliable platform on which to mature and evolve security processes over time. Without complete visibility, the old adage ‘you can’t secure what you can’t see’ will certainly come back to haunt you.”

When it comes to managing cyber security costs, Santana advises that automating processes will inevitably yield a return on investments and speed up the maturity curve of an organisation. However, she cautions,the value is not in having more security tools but in having those that provide a clear, detailed view of all infrastructure and the business’s risk exposure.

"Strengthening an organisation's security posture is about doing the basics right.Having visibility and knowing what your IT landscape looks like at any given point, and being able to prioritise what you are vulnerable to, can make all the difference to maintaining a proactive cyber defence strategy," Santana concludes.

By completing this survey, you’ll contribute valuable data towards an exclusive cyber security trends report, which will be published on ITWeb, and you’ll stand to win a R5 000 Takealot voucher.

Click here to take part in the survey.

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