Having seen increases in targeted cyber-attacks perpetrated by malicious insiders and compromised third parties in 2018, Kenya based Serianu Cyber Intelligence team, has highlighted the possible trends that may impact organization’s operation and exposure to cyber risk in 2019.
Serianu, in its recent newsletter argues that the attacks in 2018 were lethal and exposed the unpreparedness of most organisations to anticipate, detect, respond and contain targeted cyber threats. Thus, the organization noted has created a boardroom issue, where many organistion’s cyber risk posture has escalated to senior executive and board members.
The trends, as summarised by Serianu include Growth in Lethal and Targeted Malware, Attack-replication across different organisations will persist, Increase in Regulatory requirements and Increased use of outsourced/Managed security services.
Others are Use of Third Parties to exploit target organisations, Continued Engagement from Board and Shareholders and Growth in Cyber insurance offerings.
The Serianu team also added that organizations embark on strengthening their Cyber resilience, it’s critical to identify what’s priority and ask key questions, which include:.
- What is my inherent risk profile? Do I know all my risks, threats and vulnerabilities?
- What controls have I implemented and are they adequate?
- What level of visibility do I have into the effectiveness and efficiency of the cyber risk controls?
- What is my organisations cyber security exposure? Should I purchase cyber insurance?
“These questions are important because Cyber criminals are spending more time understanding the inner workings of their target organisations. Some of them are investing heavily in understanding the technologies and processes organisations have deployed,” Serinu warned in the newsletter.
In the last few years, Serianu in partnership with Nigeria’s based Demadiur Systems Limited and he United States International University (USIU Africa) have published the annual Nigeria Cyber-Security Report, which highlight the latest cyber threats, trends, insights, and other potentially harmful business risks affecting organizations operating in Nigeria and across the Africa continent.
The comprehensive report draws from a wide range of internal and external security studies which uncovers the top trends affecting our national payment systems, ICT Infrastructure, as well as businesses and organizations in the region.