Cyberattacks reporting can mitigate future occurrences in organisations

There is a call for policymakers in different institutions, cybersecurity experts, chief information officers, and artificial intelligence (AI) researchers to establish a collaborative community that addresses the growing concerns of cybercrimes in organisations.

Kingsley Osaghale, country manager of West Africa, Checkpoint said this at the Signal Alliance Consulting event on June 21, 2023, at the Capital Club, VI, Lagos.

He was on a panel with Nath Ude, managing director/CEO at NOVA Merchant Bank Ltd, and Ola Williams, country manager of Nigeria & Ghana Microsoft. The roundtable saw C-level executives in attendance and featured two panels: the Executive Business Panel and the Technical Panel.

According to Osaghale, there are a lot of attacks going on in every organisations, but this organisation believes that if they share with other organisation it will be used against them and they intend to keep their brand safe.

He said, “If countries and regions can come together to fight cybercrimes, then businesses and enterprises should do the same, to avoid others being affected.”

Ude, during the executive business panel discussion on “The opportunities and challenges of cybersecurity in the age of AI.: Panic or Act said that regulatory issues and cybersecurity concerns are the top challenges faced by businesses, particularly in the financial industry, especially fintech, and banks.

He said “The need for proactive measures and information sharing among banks to combat cyberattacks effectively, as institutions try to protect their reputation, by referring to threats and cyberattacks as network glitches or technological breakdowns.

“For instance, if there is information sharing, many banks will not have to undergo major attacks that were experienced by the other, but because they don’t want their co-banks to see their weakness they tend to weep it under the carpet.”

Responding to how organisations can mitigate these attacks, Williams emphasised more investment in using artificial intelligence (AI).

“As technology advances, we began to embrace the introduction of the Internet of Things, cloud computing, operational technologies, and many others. Signifying that the attack space that bad actors (cybercriminals) can leverage to unleash their attack has significantly increased.”

“However, with the introduction of AI, we have a 95 percent chance of detecting an attack before it happens,” she said.

According to her, the more organisation get involved with the adoption of AI, the easier it gets to mitigate cybercrime risk. To achieve this, partnering with companies that offer AI services can effectively combat cybercrime and minimize its impact.

“Sharing information, investing in AI, and forming partnerships are crucial steps to protect against cyberattacks and safeguard brand reputations,” she said.