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Critical Role of Cybersecurity

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WHY CYBERSECURITY MATTERS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF MALICIOUS INTENT

Cyberattacks and cybersecurity have grown and developed as IT has become increasingly integral to business operations. This struggle has been ongoing since the early days of the IT industry.

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According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the 1990s brought the first outbreak of cyber-viruses, as well as the first polymorphic virus – a code that mutates while keeping the original algorithm intact, in order to avoid detection.

One of the most memorable viruses the public was introduced to was called ‘Good Times’. This malicious program was sent to users’ email addresses with the subject line ‘Good Times’ and, once downloaded, would wipe out the entire hard disk. The growing threat of malicious viruses paved the way for companies such as Symantec to develop the first anti-virus software. However, early anti-virus was unfortunately signature-based. This meant that early anti-virus solutions produced many false positives and used a lot of computational power.

During 1995/96, these cyber-viruses evolved and posed more threats as well as challenges for anti-virus solutions that were already on the market. Many people were also introduced to spyware, although the intention of the spyware back then was to monitor activity, rather than disrupt the computer. It was Gibson Research that developed the first anti-spyware program in late 1999.

What seemed to be something fairly new turned into something catastrophic as new viruses and malware grew from tens of thousands attacks in the early 1990s to rising by five million every year until 2007.

In the 21st century, malware has evolved to the point that governments can now deploy such programs as cyber-weapons. Stuxnet is one example, which targeted nuclear reactors in Iran. The 2010s were the start of numerous high-profile breaches. Cybercrime had evolved to the point that it began to compromise the security of countries, while also costing companies many millions of dollars. Cybercriminals were and are becoming smarter and more vicious.

A constantly changing picture In recognising the danger of these newer threats, a lot of the larger corporate and financial companies have made the necessary changes to address these rising cyber-threats such as investing in cybersecurity solutions and managed services such as multifactor authentication (MFA), firewalls, endpoint protection,

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Since 2013, Africa has been the fastest growing region for cybercrimes, from both an attacker and target perspective. In the year 2016 alone, Symantec observed 24 million malware incidents that targeted Africa. Recent target industries include the mining, healthcare and financial sectors. Cybercrimes will continue to evolve going forward and become more vicious with every year that passes – the only prevention is early detection.

access management, risk and compliance management, encryption, IDS/IPS, antivirus, DLP, DDOS mitigation, vulnerability management, and disaster recovery.

Some of the larger corporate companies have adopted a cybersecurity team with their respective chief information security officers (CISOs) monitoring the systems and possible threats; however, many smaller companies still perceive cybersecurity to be a luxury and not a necessity.

Since cybercriminals are becoming smarter and more vicious, this has prompted anti-virus companies to transition from signature-based methods of detection to next-generation innovation. This has also prompted cybersecurity companies to improve their offerings and address current threats. Next-gen cybersecurity uses different approaches, in order to increase the detection of new and unprecedented threats, while also reducing the number of false positives. It typically involves: - MFA - network behavioural analysis (NBA) – identifying malicious files based on behavioural deviations or anomalies - threat intelligence and update automation - real-time protection – also referred to as on-access scanning, background guard, resident shield and auto-protect - sandboxing – creating an isolated test environment where you can execute a suspicious file or URL - forensics – replaying attacks to

help security teams better mitigate future breaches - backup and mirroring - web application firewalls (WAF) – protecting against cross-site forgery, cross-site scripting (XSS), file inclusion, and SQL injection - access management - penetration testing - awareness and cybersecurity training for all employees. These are the cybersecurity tactics that enterprises are now deploying. It is vital for them to have a cybersecurity team to constantly monitor the systems – whether internally or outsourcing a managed service. A lot of enterprises have realised that cybersecurity is now a need and not a want. However, most organisations in Africa still lack knowledge of the importance of cybersecurity and the related skills.

Some of the impacts a company may face if they do suffer a serious breach include: - a loss in revenue that ranges in the millions - serious reputational damage - if important and confidential client details are stolen, the company could find themselves facing a lawsuit - loss of intellectual property - downtime to the business – e.g. a breach can shut a company’s website down - online vandalism, where criminals can change the company’s website - costs to recover from the breach - compromised safety of employees to the point of being life threatening.

Critical security measures to have in place According to the IDC, to secure your organisation to the best of your ability, you should seriously consider implementing the following solutions: - employee cybersecurity training - regular software updates - anti-virus and anti-malware programs - strong passwords and MFA - endpoint protections - VPN - firewalls - UTM (unified threat management) system - a spam email filter - device encryption - constant monitoring of servers - limited access to critical information through the implementation of effective access management - constant backing up of data - a secure Wi-Fi network. It is as important to invest in cybersecurity, as it is to invest in sales and marketing. A lot of businesses are carefully focused on making money and providing a good service, but they should understand that ensuring their data is safe and protected is just as important.

The thing is that many organisations often only realise the importance of cybersecurity after they have been breached – when it is, by definition, too late. However, if they had invested prior to this, they could have prevented the breach from ever occurring. In a lot of cases, employees may also be behind the breach, so it is critical that employers are cautious about who they share what information with.

In today’s age, having an effective cybersecurity system in place is similar to having a house alarm system and burglar guards in South Africa – it is a need not a luxury.

SOME KNOWN INCIDENTS DURING THE 21ST CENTURY INCLUDE:

• 2012: Saudi hacker 0XOMAR publishes the details of more than 400 000 credit cards online • 2013: Ex-CIA employee Edward

Snowden leaks classified information from the US National Security Agency • 2013/14: Malicious hackers break into

Yahoo, compromising the accounts and

personal information of its three billion users. Yahoo was subsequently fined $35 million for failing to disclose the news • 2017: WannaCry ransomware infects 230 000 computers in one day • 2019: Multiple DDoS attacks force

New Zealand’s stock market into a temporarily shutdown

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