Hackers can be thwarted, says expert
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Tuesday February 10, 2015 14:22
This is the message from eData Solutions Botswana manager, Simbarashe Marima. “We have been lagging behind on education and appreciation of cyber threats in our region. In our opinion this comes as a wake-up call for the business community to ensure that their critical information is secured at all cost,” he told Mmegi.
Marima said as the nation embraced and enjoyed the Internet it should also appreciate inherent risks in the technology. He said too many companies underestimated the potential risk that came with the Internet.
“The question they need to be asking is, ‘how do I change what I do to take into account this risk?’”
He said data loss prevention technologies, routine penetration testing, cutting edge firewalls and managed intrusion detection and security solutions for websites were key ICT security items for organisations with confidential, critical data and missions.
He said to protect data, intellectual property and communications and to avoid the unexpected costs associated with targetted attacks and advanced threats, organisations needed the ability to discover attacks which traditional security was blind to.
He likened the failure by companies to have such security to having an unguarded high wall.
“Effectively many companies have erected high walls to try and deter intruders, but they are failing to post guards on the walls to spot intruders when they climb over them,” he said.
This, he said, was because, “Generic threats target anyone anywhere and targeted advance threats are specifically designed to bypass your existing defences based on extensive advance reconnaissance. It then breaches your network and steals your valuable data.”
Marima said businesses that failed to appreciate the need to stay ahead of hackers risked damaging their brand and operational integrity.
“To prevent a major dent in your bottom line you need a partner that provides a solution that enables you to effectively detect, adapt, and respond to targeted attacks and advanced threats that are unknown and unseen, and that evolve over time. “Engaging a Managed Security Provider would be a cost effective action as it reduces the need for a huge outright investment and headaches that follow with managing security threats and systems,” he added.