As the surge of cyber-attacks continues to increase, experts have warned that over-dependence on technology at the expense of processes and people will only achieve 26 percent.
“Majority of the organizations are too much focused on the technology with little or no attention to people and process,” Tomi Amao, a cybersecurity expert at Cisco told journalists in a press conference.
In terms of mitigating cyber-attacks, technology could achieve only 26 percent. To adopt a holistic approach towards cyber-attacks will require people who understand technology, as well as the process.
“These three factors must be interwoven when solving cyber problems. This situation has led to an outcry for more skilled cybersecurity personnel to bridge the knowledge gap in the industry,”
The process involves security patches, penetration testing, responding to attacks, response time and others. The process, however, will require people who have been trained over time to handle.
He said going forward, there is a huge expectancy that cyber-attacks will increase and that would require organizations to consider their budget, so as to do the needful in mitigating potential attacks.
The General Manager of Cisco, Olakunle Oloruntimehin explained the need for businesses and enterprises to adopt advanced methods of cybersecurity.
“Security is getting more complex and the scope of breaches is expanding. 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 minimizes 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.”
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 organizations in the region manage more than 21 vendors and cite lack of security personnel as one of the biggest obstacles to security.