Olakunle Oloruntimehin, General Manager of Cisco Nigeria, has revealed that security is getting more complex and the scope of breaches is expanding. With this knowledge, he said Nigerian businesses and enterprises need to adopt advanced methods of cybersecurity.
“Several companies are hit by cyber breaches and attacks every year causing losses in millions of naira and stealing highly classified information. It is therefore imperative that any organization that desires to stay safe and minimize risk or loss address cybersecurity at the top, with executive leadership setting the tone and engender a ‘security-first-always-and-everywhere’ culture that flows throughout the organization,” he said.
He made this comment while speaking at the Nigerian unveiling of the recently released Cisco 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report which identified the evolution of ransomware as one of the most significant threat developments over the past year.
According to the report, malware had become more vicious and harder to combat and that attackers are developing more skill in creating malware that can evade traditional sandboxing. It also revealed that adversaries are increasingly embracing encryption – meant to enhance security – to conceal command-and-control activity and that nearly half of the security risk that organizations face stems from having multiple security vendors and products.
The Cisco 2018 Security Capabilities Benchmark Study reveals that 94 percent of companies in the Middle East and Africa suffered a breach in the past year and that 34 percent of breaches in resulted in more than half of systems being impacted. The study also indicated that nearly a quarter of organisations in the region manage more than 21 vendors and cite lack of security personnel as one of the biggest obstacles to security.
Corroborating the importance of robust cybersecurity practices, Systems Engineer and Security expert at Cisco, Tomi Amao remarked; “Cisco researchers observed a two-fold increase in malicious web traffic volume in roughly over 12-months. This alone demonstrates that cyber adversaries continue to learn and evolve. The time to raise the bar in cybersecurity is now. That is why at Cisco we take pride in being able to educate and provide businesses with the solutions and best practices required for effective cybersecurity. Our threat researchers have a reputation for timely, accurate and innovative work, and our network of talented teams are devoted to driving impactful outcomes for our customers.”
