Expect cybercrime to rise, industry experts say. With SA — and many other countries — in lockdown, more of us are working from home than ever before. And that is not without its risks.
Millions of workers around the world are accessing enterprise systems outside the safety of the office. Opportunistic criminals may be lurking in the dark corners of the internet looking to steal passwords and access codes, and tap into sensitive business information. And all of this is made easier when workers access systems from less secure locations.
This is likely to eat up valuable resources at a time when companies — and entire economies — are already staring down the barrel.
Attackers are finding increasingly innovative ways to breach cybersecurity systems and steal data, says Lukas van der Merwe, specialist sales executive for security at technology firm T-Systems SA.
Last week the European Commission warned that cybercrime in the EU had already increased directly as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Its president, Ursula von der Leyen, said cybercriminals were taking advantage of the amount of time that people spend online — while they also benefit from the health crisis itself.
"They follow us online and exploit our concerns about the coronavirus. Our fear becomes their business opportunity," Von der Leyen said. As a result, the police co-operation agency Europol is fighting trafficking in counterfeit coronavirus "medicines".
And more and more hospitals, research hubs and medical centres are being targeted by organised cybercrime syndicates which are after information, intelligence and system accessibility, according to the EUobserver newspaper. This means criminals who get their hands on information may be able to benefit long after the virus has been contained.
Recent research by the US’s Ponemon Institute shows that a data breach costs SA companies on average $3.06m (R50m) — much more than the global average of $1.42m.
With SA’s high cost of data — and in an environment where fewer than 3-million homes have access to fibre internet services — there are additional risks.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise SA MD President Ntuli says one of the easiest ways to safeguard an organisation’s cyber infrastructure is to stay off public or free Wi-Fi access points.
However, many South Africans may be tempted to use them.
He says businesses need to be vigilant. One-time PINs for verification is a security measure that companies can use, together with making use of a Virtual Badge, which turns a mobile phone into an authentication device.
Firms will also have to consider limiting the access that some staff have when accessing enterprise systems off premises.
So what are companies doing to protect their systems while maintaining productivity from those working at home?
MTN SA CEO Godfrey Motsa says over half of the network operator’s staff are working from home. MTN has given all its employees data bundles. Access to internal systems is through virtual private networks (VPNs) to ensure security.
VPNs have become the go-to solution for many organisations. A VPN extends a private network across a public network, and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.
In this case, a manager at MTN can log into internal systems as if they’re sitting at the company’s Joburg headquarters.
Motsa says that as long as people are given the tools to do their work, businesses should be able to run as normal. "This is a well-orchestrated effort that’s really showing us an interesting way of working."
Even before social distancing became the order of the day, T-Systems SA had a work-from-home policy in place, says MD Dineo Molefe.
Taking a page from the remote working and online collaboration culture of Silicon Valley, she says: "Even before the coronavirus outbreak, we were on this journey." She believes the virus is likely to be a catalyst for many employers to revisit the traditional "bums on seats" view of people working in the office.
Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko says by this week, about 70% of staff will work remotely. He says VPNs offer "multiple layers of security".
For some, the cybersecurity threat is relative to the size of the business or number of people working there. Antonio Bruni, CEO of technology and delivery company Picup Technologies, isn’t too worried about the cybersecurity risk as his workforce have always accessed their systems in a secure online environment. With a network of about 1,400 drivers in SA, having delivered 3.5-million parcels since 2015, the start-up has a staff complement of just 22.
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