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The murky waters of cyber warfare and insurance coverage
South Africa has seen a dramatic rise in cyberattacks and successful breaches during the past two years as well as an accompanying surge in ransom demands. In the most recent high-profile attack, credit reporting agency TransUnion South Africa revealed that at least...
TransUnion faces R10-million fine for hack
Credit bureau TransUnion could be slapped with a R10-million fine after it suffered a data breach that compromised the personal information of millions of South Africans, the Information Regulator of South Africa has said. The company confirmed on Thursday that a...
How underfunding of cybersecurity may affect the country
Underfunding of critical cyber defences is leaving South African organisations exposed to damaging cyberattacks. New research has found that 97 percent of South African organisations say they have been negatively impacted by a lack of budget for their cyber resilience...
Cyber reinsurance premium to exceed property cat in decade beyond 2030
Analysis by global reinsurance broker, Gallagher Re, finds that by 2040 the cyber market will become comparable in size to either property or casualty as the segment experiences a second wave of growth from 2023. Gallagher Re’s cyber reinsurance team has published a...
Cyber insurance policies gain steam as hacks become more sophisticated
An explosion in costly cyberattacks created a rapidly growing niche business: cyber insurance. The industry generated $8 billion in revenue in 2020. The number may grow to $20 billion by 2025. "Seven or eight years ago, this was never discussed," said Rob Clyde, the...
6 ways to prepare for the next wave of ransomware in 2022
Ransomware as a trend will continue to affect businesses across the world in 2022 – with attack types and tactics from cybercriminals evolving all the time. As attacks get more sophisticated, so do the consequences of falling victim to ransomware and the complexity of...
Beware the ransomware pandemic
A report by cyber insurer Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty highlights the surge in ransomware incidents, which could be prevented if companies strengthen their cyber security and controls. During the COVID-19 crisis another outbreak has happened in cyber...
Consumers ‘will feel the impact’ of higher Sasria premiums
Consumers are justifiably concerned about the impact of Eskom’s demand for a 20% tariff increase, but there’s another factor that could contribute to rising inflation this year: significantly higher Sasria rates on commercial vehicles. Sasria announced its 2022 rates...
Will 2022 sustain the sophisticated cyberattacks developed in 2021?
After two years of unexpected events, how will 2022 stack against what is becoming a much more sophisticated approach to cybercrime? While cloud technology enjoyed an unprecedented increase in its adoption, entire industries were held back after major cyberattacks....
A growing cyberthreat landscape is resulting in an urgent need for more cybersecurity skills in South Africa
Globally, more than 10% of Internet user computers experienced at least one malware attack in 2020. Furthermore, in the same year, Kaspersky solutions blocked over 665 million attacks launched from online resources. Meanwhile in Africa, the most recent common...
Collaborative risk management central to a new insurance paradigm
According to Santam's research, 62% of commercial entities cite the struggling South African economy as their biggest emerging concern The economic downturn has impacted businesses across our specialist lines of insurance. We’ve seen the marine, heavy haulage, taxis...
Do you have the right strategies in place for a cyber-attack?
Cyber theft, especially ransomware, has hit businesses and the legal profession has become a key target for cyber-criminals. Critical services to the public, such as healthcare and social services have been targeted, and recently the Department of Justice has seen the...
How to be more resilient to ransomware threats
Impacts vary, but in many cases, ransomware disrupts businesses for significant periods or even forces them to suspend operations or close. By Clive Brindley, security lead at Accenture in Africa A growing population of highly capable cyber extortionists is developing...
Surge in car jamming incidents during peak shopping periods
Data from vehicle tracking and recovery firm Netstar shows an uptick in remote jamming of vehicle immobilisers in the run-up to Black Friday and peak shopping periods. The device used to jam the remote signals is often a customised version of a 400MHz gate or garage...
Trends 2022: Supply chain cyber-attacks on the rise as ransomware attacks break records
In the last six months, an organisation in South Africa was attacked on average 1737 times per week. This is more than double the global average (819) of attacks per organisation per week, according to Check Point Threat Intelligence Report. So, what can we expect...
31.5 million threats target SA users
The number of cyber threats recorded by the Kaspersky Security Network in the first half of 2021 that targeted SA users reached 31.5 million. Kenya was in a similar position with 32.8 million cyber threats recorded, while Nigeria trailed behind with 1.67 million. All...
Costs of data breaches in SA up by 50%
The latest IBM Security Cost of a Data Breach Report indicates that the global average cost of a data breach has risen to $4.24 million in 2021, a 10% increase overall and the largest percentage increase in the 17-year history of the report. This is according to...
Is cyber insurance a worthwhile investment?
The cyber insurance market is rapidly maturing and there are many reasons for this. Companies are increasingly leveraging technology to expand or streamline their businesses, remote work is seeing wide-scale adoption, cybercrime is inflicting trillions of dollars in...
Bracing for cyber cover in today’s data era
In today’s always-on, always-connected economy, businesses are under pressure to enhance their cybersecurity strategy and prove to their customers that data protection is critical to their engagement strategy. By Michel Nader, senior regional director: data protection...
Companies need to strengthen cyber controls to counter ransomware pandemic
During the Covid-19 crisis, another outbreak has happened in cyberspace: a digital pandemic driven by ransomware. Malware attacks that encrypt company data and systems and demand a ransom payment for release are surging globally. The increasing frequency and severity...