Serianu in deal to offer firms tools for fighting cyber crime

Tech consulting firm Serianu has partnered with the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) to offer businesses affordable tools to mitigate on cyber-attacks.

By LYNET IGADWAH
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Summary

• Tech consulting firm Serianu has partnered with the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) to offer businesses affordable tools to mitigate on cyber-attacks.
• The cyber security management tools will offer organisations – both local and private - proactive defense of intrusions into their systems, thus averting potential losses.
• The partnership comes amid increase of cyber-attacks as companies and government officers moved to working remotely in the wake of the coronavirus disease.

The cyber security management tools will offer organisations – both local and private - proactive defense of intrusions into their systems, thus averting potential losses.

The partnership comes amid increase of cyber-attacks as companies and government officers moved to working remotely in the wake of the coronavirus disease.

“Over the last five years, the scale and depth of cybersecurity attacks on firms and government departments across the African continent multiplied nearly ten times as cybercriminals became more sophisticated and more localised,” said Brencil Kaimba, Serianu’s Head of Product Strategy and Partnership Development.

Serianu cybersecurity research shows that between 2015 and 2020 the cost of cybercrime in Africa rose from an estimated half a billion dollars to three billion dollars.

This rose as attackers expanded their scope from the financial sector to manufacturing, government, and individual mobile devices.

Ms Kiamba noted the partnership with GCA will enable institutions to reduce the impact of cybersecurity attacks by leveraging the combined research and tools.

“Serianu’s comprehensive threat landscape reports provide insights from African SMEs and will inform the development and adaptation of GCA’s tools and practices to fit the needs of SMEs in Africa,” said Terry Wilson, Executive Director, EU & Africa at GCA.

Data from the Communications Authority (CA) shows cyber-attacks rose 153 percent in the three months to September from June, a period when companies and government officers were encouraged to work remotely to combat spread of the coronavirus disease.

The data shows that 35.2 million cyber-attacks were detected in the period, more than double 13.9 million in June after the outbreak of the Covid-19 forced the State and private companies to adopt work from home policy.

The attacks include cases of malicious software (malware) where hackers use computer programmes to gain illegal access to confidential information, web application attacks, system misconfiguration and online child abuse.

The rise in cyber-attacks points to the growing vulnerability facing institutions like banks, business and state offices who risk losing confidential information and billions of shillings to hackers.

Even with rising cyber-attack cases, implementing cutting-edge cybersecurity management tools remains out of reach most organisations.

“We believe that this partnership will have a real, positive impact on SMEs across Africa, and we estimate that GCA tools will reduce the cost of implementing cybersecurity solutions for African organisations by at least 50 per cent,” said Ms Kiamba.