Cybersecurity race: Experts call on firms to innovate or perish

Proposed mitigations include incorporating cybersecurity concepts into school curricula, establishing specialised academies, and launching a comprehensive government-led public awareness campaign.

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Cybersecurity experts warn that organisations failing to prioritise research and development and increase cybersecurity budgets risk dire consequences as cyberattacks grow increasingly complex.

Speaking at the Regional Cyber Security Summit in Nairobi last week, experts highlighted the rapidly evolving threat landscape and emphasised the need for continuous innovation and increased awareness.

Safaricom’s senior manager of Managed Security Services, Phides Nyamohanga, stressed the importance of research and development.

“If you ignore the research and development teams, then you’ve killed innovation, and it is through innovation that people get to optimise existing controls.”

Nyamohanga added that robust innovation cultures enable professionals to “keep up with emerging threats” through in-depth understanding of the threat landscape.

Cyrus Ngaruiya, consulting lead at NetScout Systems, advocated for enhanced data management strategies, including minimising stored data: “Data management is very key and the trick here is to minimise, as much as possible, the amount of data you collect and store unnecessarily.”

He also highlighted the importance of awareness creation to inform individuals about mitigating threats.

Barrack Omondi, Safaricom’s head of technology enterprise solutions, noted that increased digitisation has expanded the attack surface, compounding cybersecurity challenges.

He pointed to financial institutions as prime targets, suggesting that banks, in particular, need to rethink their cybersecurity integration strategies.

Omondi predicted a future where an “integrated, end-to-end solution manned by the regulator” would necessitate harmonised cybersecurity standards across the industry. He warned of potential vulnerabilities for institutions with lower baselines than others on such a platform.

Nyamohanga also identified the “misuse of trust” as a significant vulnerability, emphasising the need for increased awareness.

“The misuse of trust is the one gap that we need to be cognisant and just realise you cannot trust anyone...because you don’t know who they work for, what their motivation is, and how they stand to benefit from a breach.”

Proposed mitigations include incorporating cybersecurity concepts into school curricula, establishing specialised academies, and launching a comprehensive government-led public awareness campaign.

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