South African business, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are besieged by an increasing number of cyber attacks and need to invest in defensive technology while the state urgently needs to enact legislation and enforcement capabilities, cybercrime experts have warned.
This is as about 43 percent of cyber attacks target small businesses, particularly those in the financial, healthcare, retail, insurance, and legal sectors.
Cybercrime expert, Neil Hare-Brown, CEO of Storm, a private enterprise dedicated to addressing issues of cybercrime in the country said South Africa was especially vulnerable on the continent because of its advanced internet technology, advanced economy and the lack of appropriate technology and enforcement to deal with attacks, often by people safely outside the borders where they could attack with impunity.
Among the most recent attacks were on the South African National Blood Services (SANBS), logistics utility Transnet which was put off-line for two days, the National Space Agency in Pretoria as well as some financial institutions.
The attacks are costing the local economy more than R2.2 billion a year in malware, ransom attacks and other…
