The trend highlights the growing threat that millions of internet users in Kenya face today as attackers become more aggressive and complex/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 28–Financial institutions and organizations failing to budget for cyber threats prevention expose their firms to cyber-attacks.
This is according to Ernest & Young Senior Manager Cyber Security Anthony Muiyoro who has urged companies to make cyber security investment a priority rather than looking for curative measures after a security breach.
“79 percent of organizations often increase their budgets on cyber threats after the attack has already happened, which means companies need to make security as a key agenda and it has to be part of their business strategy,” said Muiyoro.
His sentiments come at the backdrop of research was conducted by Ernest & Young which revealed that more than three-quarters of organizations do not allocate enough budget to provide the levels of cyber security and resilience they need.
Ernest & Young conducted the findings in 60 countries which involved 1,400 C-suite leaders and senior information security and IT executives participated in the survey.
“Protection measures are patchy, relatively few organizations are prioritizing advanced capabilities and cyber security too often remains soiled or isolated,” Muiyoro added.
Cyber threats in Kenya more than doubled in the year ending June 2019, according to information released by the Communications Authority of Kenya.
“This increase in the number of cyber threat events detected is attributed to the global increase in malware including ransomware attacks during this period,” said CA in its latest report.
The trend highlights the growing threat that millions of internet users in Kenya face today as attackers become more aggressive and complex.
The National Cyber security detected 51.9 million threats for the 2018-2019 period, compared to the 22.1 million recorded in the 2017-2018 period.
CA also highlighted that the major attack was malware which was up from shot from 8.9 million in the first three months of 2019 to 21.1 million in the April-July period.
Cases of system vulnerability also more than doubled, making the case for organizations to invest more in cyber security and strengthen their infrastructure to avert losses.
Further, based on Africa Cyber Security Report- Kenya released early this year by Serianu, about 60 percent of local companies are short of cyber security professionals.
