A recent research study Mimecast conducted with Vanson Bourne revealed that 66% of the surveyed South African businesses said that they thought it likely that their organization would suffer from cyber-criminal activity in 2017.

1. Security and Risk Complaints Online
on Building a 'human firewall'
A recent research study Mimecast conducted with Vanson Bourne revealed that 66% of the
surveyed South African businesses said that they thought it likely that their organization would
suffer from cyber-criminal activity in 2017.
So said Mimecast MD Brandon Bekker, adding that there are three major threats his
organization believes SA businesses are facing in terms of IT security.
Ransomware
"Ransomware will explode to become one of the biggest threats, fuelled by smaller ‘opportunist'
attackers using off-the-shelf kits to deploy malware. This is an easy and cheap attack method
that produces fruitful results. Few organisations have effective defenses against this type of
malware and now with bitcoins enabling the perpetrators to increase distance from their victims
further, it has never been so easy to get away with it," he adds.
When asked how to prevent or mitigate attacks of this nature, he says cyber criminals are
becoming increasingly more sophisticated and insidious, and are continually revising, updating
and re-inventing their tactics and technologies to carry out an attack.
Because of this, preventive systems, such as anti-virus and intrusion prevention systems, are
rendered inadequate. "Planning exclusively to help prevent cyber-attacks, like ransomware, isn't
enough. It's time for businesses to implement a total cyber resilience strategy that includes
security, continuity and data recovery."
In his view, the ideal approach is to layer together state-of-the-art preventive systems, point-in-
time recovery measures, and a means to maintain business continuity during a ransomware
attack. He adds that education, or ‘building a human firewall' plays a vital role, because the
more staff can be aware of attacks such as ransomware, the more educated eyes can be on the
problem.
The insider threat
According to Bekker, insider threats are also high on the list, and according to a Forrester
Technology Adoption Profile study, these threats impact 99% of organisations surveyed.
In addition, these businesses said they had experienced some form of insider security incident in
the past 24 months and 36% discovered insiders e-mailing sensitive data out of the organisation.
"With the POPI Act in the spotlight, organisations need to ensure that sensitive corporate data is
not being accidentally or purposefully leaked externally; no business wants to be made an
example of by the Information Regulator," cautions Bekker.
The third threat was revealed to be e-mail impersonation, or whaling, which continues to plague
businesses in South Africa. The Mimecast study showed that 51% of those surveyed reported
seeing an increase in impersonation fraud where recipients are asked to make wire transactions.

2. Bekker says impersonation technology, in conjunction with regular employee education, will
help business protect themselves from these attacks.
What we're doing wrong
Speaking of what SA companies are doing wrong in light of these three threats, Bekker says
although many SA businesses are developing stronger cyber resilience strategies, and cyber
activity is being discussed seriously and regularly in boardrooms across the country, IT budgets
still limit organisations that need the advanced, layered protection required to protect them
from the evolving threat landscape.
"In their move to the cloud, many organisations believe that sufficient security is being built into
their messaging platform. We are finding that the increased pace of development in the
cybercrime underworld needs to be matched by a focused security solution that integrates with
the messaging platform but focuses on the protection of corporate data."
In terms of what businesses could be doing better, Bekker says there is a vast amount of
information out there and many perspectives about what the future holds. "IT managers need to
continue exploring all the options, researching the options and meeting with different providers
to better understand how they can build a strong cyber resilience strategy and how to layer the
right set of solutions into that strategy."