According to cybersecurity experts, more than half of South African firms were impacted by ransomware over the past year.
CAPE TOWN – The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said cybercrime costs the economy an estimated R2.2 billion rand per annum. Cybersecurity experts on Tuesday gave an overview of the extent of cybercrime in the country. They said more than half of South African firms were impacted by ransomware over the past year.
Cybersecurity systems expert at the CSIR, Billy Petzer, said there must be a concerted effort to bolster cyber security in the country. “We need to invest in sponsorships, training, bursaries and you also need to realise that cyber security is not just technical, a lot of soft skills have quite a big role to play in the cyber security domain. So, if you work in the field of economics, law, psychology, sociology, communication, and media studies, you have a massive role to play in the cyber security environment.”
Petzer stressed that there is also a huge skills shortage in the sector. “We are aware that there is a massive skills gap in cyber security, cyber security consistently ranks amongst the top-five most in-demand fields in IT and technology, Kaspersky (cyber security company) estimates that about 87% of organisations do not currently have adequate cyber security skills to protect themselves.”
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