Hackers target banking, telecoms, public sectors

By Adeyemi Adepetun

 Cybercrimes may not abate soon, as hackers have been found targeting five...
business verticals in Nigeria, and Africa.
 
These verticals include banking, insurance, public sector, manufacturing, media/telecoms sectors.
 
According to Business Group Director, Security and Modern Workplace for Middle East and Africa Multi-Country Cluster (MEA MCC) covering Africa, Levant and Pakistan at Microsoft, Pratik Roy, there have been lots of cyber activities on the African continent because of low implementation of safety cultures.

  
Roy said the continent must build more defences, and create more awareness, “security is a journey.”
 
Reaffirming Microsoft’s commitment to providing organisations with a trusted and secure environment within which to digitally transform, Roy said all hands must be on deck to prevent hackers from launcing attacks, especially on the continent. He called for a collaborative effort between the government and the private sector in tackling the menace.
 
The Microsoft Chief, who spoke at the 2020 Cyber Africa Summit, in Lagos, said as security threats become more complex, companies going through transformation in order to compete with digital native startups are increasingly finding that the intelligence and threat protection tools they need to remain a step ahead of attackers are in the cloud.
 
These, according to Roy are the IT transformation components to support the business digital transformation that will provide both challenges and opportunities for information security.
  
He revealed that to be competitive in the marketplace, businesses are seeking to transform using new powerful technologies. The availability of cloud, mobile, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies is fueling major disruptions such as digital native startups leverage this new technology to disrupt longstanding business models. Also, existing organizations are driving digital transformation to adopt the way they engage customers, empower employees, optimize operations, and offer products to customers
 
“Microsoft has always been at the centre of empowering businesses to secure the environment in which they operate in. Our unique insights into the threat landscape create a hub where all endpoints are protected, attacks stopped, and response time accelerated. We’ve been able to do this through educating through such forums and facilitating our customers move to the cloud – adoption of modern platforms and embracing comprehensive identity, security and management solutions,” Roy said.
  
According to him, Microsoft’s security solutions housed by the AI capabilities are trained on eight trillion daily threat signals and the insights of 3,500 security experts.
 
“Our security specific solutions identify and respond to threats 50 per cent faster than what was possible only 12 months ago – a stark indication of not only the pace at which technology advancements are able to evolve, but also insight into an organizations crucial need to keep abreast. Today, Microsoft Security solutions can automate 97 per cent of the routine tasks that occupied defenders’ valuable time just two years ago,” Roy added. He explained that Microsoft Threat Protection breaks down security silos so security professionals can automatically detect, investigate and stop coordinated multi-point attacks. It weeds out the unimportant and amplifies signals that might have been missed, freeing defenders to work on the incidents that need their attention. With identity protection as a core component designed for Zero Trust.