African companies underestimate role of cybersecurity in revenue drive ― Report

New research by Trend Micro Incorporated, a global cybersecurity leader, has revealed that despite the plan by global organisations to increase their cybersecurity budget in 2023, 90 per cent of African companies still neglect to put cybersecurity protocols in place.

Middle East and Africa (MEA) Trend Micro Security Solutions Architect, Zaheer Ebrahim, has however advised that organ­isations would do well to reconsider the importance of cybersecurity, especially, if they want to optimise their investments in this area.

Ebrahim noted that cybersecurity is not just about keeping data and other related resources safe, it has a clear impact on winning new businesses and recruiting top talents.

With this in mind, he said, it is vital that organisations change their perceptions around cybersecurity, especially, amongst the corporate leaders.

The Security Solutions Ar­chitect disclosed that inade­quate cybersecurity measures are placing enormous costs on businesses in Africa.

According to him, in Kenya alone it stands at $36 million; while figures in Nigeria and South Africa stand at $500mil­lion and $570 million respectively.

“Trend Micro’s research shows that these costs affect various areas. A fifth (19 per cent) of the global Business Decision Makers (BDMs) surveyed in the company’s research admitted that a lack of security mea­sures has impacted their ability to win new businesses, while 81 per cent worry that it will do so in future.

“This comes as nearly three-quarters (71 per cent) of BDMs admit they’re being asked about security posture in negotiations with prospects and suppliers. And 78 per cent say these request for information is increasing in frequency.”

Ebrahim explained that this apparent contradiction in attitude was laid bare by another finding which revealed that despite prospects and suppliers clearly prioritizing security ne­gotiations, only 57 per cent of BDMs perceive there to be a strong or very strong connection between cyber and client acquisition/satisfaction.

According to him, talent acquisition is another area where there are clear gaps in BDMs’ understanding of the interconnectivity between cybersecurity and the rest of the business.

“Nearly three quarters (71 per cent) of respondents claim that the ability to work from anywhere has become vital in the battle for talent. Yet only around two-fifths understand the strong connection between cybersecurity and employee re­tention (42 per cent) and talent attraction (43 per cent).

“That’s despite respondents recognizing the impact of cyber on the employee experience: 83 per cent say current security policies have affected remote employees’ ability to do their jobs (e.g. network and information access issues, and slowing the pace of work).

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