As the cost of data breaches rises year on year, securing your business on all fronts is key to enabling business success. The Government’s plans to finalise the country’s cyber security policy to enhance security capacity in 2015 could not have come at a better time. According to IBM’s latest IBM Xforce threat intelligence reports for 2014 over 1 billion pieces of personal information were leaked last year.

Working in collaboration with research institutes and universities, the South African government aims to foster world class talent in this area to ensure that we develop the critical skills needed to keep South Africa ahead of the cyber-attack pack. The minister this week acknowledged that a piecemeal approach to protecting systems is no longer an option and that systems need to be protected as a whole, a concern that is widely recognised and shared in the industry.

It has been found that certain industries had higher data breach costs, with pharmaceuticals, financial services, communications, energy, services and technology being more susceptible than media, public services and retail companies. And top level management now have fiduciary responsibility for company security as part of their job.  “Business Leaders simply cannot afford the risk of an attack, and with the acceleration of cybercrime, securing their business is no longer a nice to have option,” says Kevin McKerr, Security Sales Leader for IBM South Africa. 

For enterprise, the needle has shifted, security is fast moving from an IT to a business initiative. And there is opportunity for SA companies to learn from and leapfrog global mistakes. “Not knowing what it is they need to protect themselves from is the big question keeping business leaders up at night. And our solution speaks directly to putting in place overarching security systems that ensure company data is protected on all fronts, from the bottom up,” says McKerr.

Until recently, he says only fragmented security options have been available in market. This has meant that as businesses secure cloud services they grab at the next service they want and plug it into their existing solution. This has left a gaping hole for potential cyber criminals to take advantage of.  So while security has previously been seen as a grudge purchase, the game has changed – having good security now means that your true business potential can be properly exploited.

In a recent study, IBM and Ponemon investigated the cost of a data breach, estimating that the organisational cost of a breach increased from £2.04 million to £2.21 million. The repercussions of data breaches were laid out in the study, one being that fewer customers remained loyal after a breach, and lost business costs increasing from approximately £920 000 in 2013 to £950 000 in 2014. These costs refer to abnormal turnover of customers, increased customer acquisition activities, reputation losses and diminished goodwill.

According to local underwriter Candice Sutherland, SA businesses lost R5.8 bn to cybercrime in 2014. “Many companies in SA are operating under a false sense of security,” says McKerr.    “The problem is very real.   And what they don’t realise is that securing their business is not a quick fix. Speed to up time from signing the right security provider to securing your enterprise through tried and tested methods can take up to two years.”

He also says that it is a common misnomer that business leaders think once you turn on your security solution, you are safe. In fact, when you switch on your solution is only 10% effective while the systems adapts to and learn of the business processes. “Companies need to act fast if they want to keep ahead of the cybercrime curve. And criminals can change their MO’s on a dime, so getting the right security backed with the right skills is critical,” he says.