The banking sector has been in the forefront as a target for cyber crooks. In fact any money related online service is always under risk of being compromised.
According to the latest Cisco Annual Security Report 2014, other sectors of the global economy are facing dangers.
The report highlighted the growth of insecurity incidences in Agriculture and Mining, Electronics, Energy including oil and gas and Pharmaceutical and Chemical sectors.
Surprisingly, statistics on banking still remain scanty due to the unwillingness of most financial institutions to share their experiences on online insecurities.
The above sectors are emerging industries in the continent of Africa. The General Manager for Cisco East Africa, Sabrina Dar encourages companies to adopt a proactive approach other than reactive.
“Organizations across Africa must realize that it is no longer if they will be targeted by cyber-attacks, but rather when,” she noted.
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“Chief Information Security Officers face growing pressure to protect terabytes of data on an increasingly porous network, manage information safely especially on the cloud, and evaluate the risks of working with third-party vendors for specialized solutions – all in the wake of shrinking budgets and leaner IT teams.”
As per all the global security reports, Android still remains the number one target for cybercriminals. Java on the other hand due to its wide use, is also a target, attracting 91% of threats on the web.
David Meads, the Vice President for Cisco in Africa paints a positive picture for the future.
“Although the Cisco Annual Security Report paints a grim picture of the current state of cyber security, there is hope for restoring trust in people, institutions and technologies – and that starts with empowering defenders with real-world knowledge about expanding attack surfaces. To truly protect against all of these possible attacks, defenders must understand the attackers, their motivations and their methods – before, during and after an attack,” David commented.
Sabrina Dar also suggested that companies faced a lot of challenges in finding trained personnel who could monitor and recommend ways of dealing with breach.
