Internationally renowned IT research company, Gartner forecasts that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 per cent from 2015, and this figure will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. In 2016, 5.5 million new things will get connected every day. Gartner estimates that the Internet of Things (IoT) will support total services spending of $235 billion in 2016, up 22 per cent from 2015. While this represents advances in technology it also presents massive opportunities for cyber criminals and an increase in cyber-attacks.
Companies that are affected by cyber security face the threat of commercial losses, reputational damage, business disruption and extortion. Cyber-attacks may also expose an organisation to regulatory breaches, lawsuits and the inability to meet contractual obligations. It is estimated that about 60% of organisations who experience cyber security breaches do not recover. So, the onus falls on the board and the executive to ensure that cyber security is given the attention that it warrants.
As the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) phenomenon, cloud-based storage and access in the workplace grows, the risks of cyber-attacks increases. These risks stem from both internal and external threats including software vulnerabilities and the deployment of poorly tested business applications.
Legislation such as POPI has been drafted to safeguard the use of personal information, with penalties for companies that fail to adhere. As a result, companies need to treat privacy as a compliance issue to reduce regulatory sanctions and avoid loss of customers due to data breaches.
Information security should be a board level discussion so that an organisation’s cyber security efforts can be managed and monitored at the highest level. Part of any cyber-security strategy should be the education of employees and the implementation of an information security management system, which is monitored regularly.
