With organisations facing increasing cyber threats, experts have urged improvement in security tools which can be smoothly integrated into increasingly complex diverse networks, critical infrastructure and another rapid mounting competency from malicious actors.
Experts made this call at the ESET Security Day which was held in Lagos recently.
ESET is a Slovak internet security company that offers anti-virus and firewall products.
The experts said that the way forward for businesses to address the issues of cyber traits is to deploy Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) to ensure their platforms are secured.
Olufemi Ake, Managing Director, ESET West Africa (Anglophone countries), explained that the conference held since 2011 focused on educating subscribers and partners in West Africa on trending issues around cybersecurity threats.
“We also viewed ESET Security Day 2021 to get closer to our subscribers and prospective customers. We also learned from them as they shared experiences in the corporate world in respect to security,” Olufemi said.
Speaking on ESET’s steps to protect its users from the increasing Cyber attackers, he explained that the large number of users protected by ESET is an encouragement to continue to keep the trust.
“We have over a billion users that we secure globally currently. If you consider the fact that we have an agreement with Google to secure the backend of Chrome, you can deduce that with the number of Google Chrome users that amounts to over half a billion. So, we make bold to say that we have over one billion people that trust us to secure their devices. We are excited about this ,” he added.
However, he urged customers in the west African region, both individuals, government and private sector, to comply with privacy and security regulations.
Daniel Adaramola, a cybersecurity risk management expert, while speaking on ‘Compliance: Staying Ahead and Undistracted’ defined Information security as the protection of an organization against threats.
He stated that compliance to regulatory standards is important because the key driver of information security is the need to protect organizations against constant traits.
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“Well, on one hand, they need to be involved in the protection of critical national assets. If those assets are down, it portrays grave danger to the economy and the nation at large. For instance, if the telcos are down, no connectivity, and the aviation sector, it means no flight to depart or arrive in the country. It is a huge economic sabotage,” Daniel said.
The speakers also opined that both government and private sector operators must not neglect to secure the third-party data in their possession and should comply with data protection regulations to prevent losses through direct leak or third-party subscribers who trust them to share their data with them.
Fowler Oriyomi, a cybersecurity risk consultant, talked about Managing Hybrid Systems in an Enterprise Environment, noting that as companies race to the cloud to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and foster flexibility and agility, they are creating a patchwork of different cybersecurity protocols.
Oriyomi, who doubles as the Head of IT at Dangote, described the modern post-COVID company as “one million-armed octopus in thousands of locations and every arm is a digital access point that can be compromised by script kidders, social hackers, professional criminal hacking organisation or even nation-state actors”.
According to him, a Company can ensure safety by managing security in all million access points.
He continues by listing hybrid cloud operational concerns including growing cyber threats, on-going regulatory push like the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR), compliance related issues, inability of security to keep up with the pace of change in application, amongst others.
While speaking on IT security regulatory compliance, Oyori made it known that expectations have grown in the past two years and have impacted companies operations.
The consultant stated that compliance is good for organisations to maintain standards as he recalls that regulatory compliances attract fines and most organisations wouldn’t want it.
Habeeb Adebisi, a senior digital security associate at Co-Creation Hub, advised organizations to intensify their cybersecurity defense approach.
He said it is regrettable that most people, including businesses, ignore security advisories and end up paying huge penalties as research finding indicates 90 percent of Organisations in Nigeria have suffered breaches.
“Our mandate is to ensure technology works in African society. We look at the West and see how technology is improving life and such is lacking here. So, along the line we discovered that one area people tend to ignore until it is late is security. For this reason, we take it very seriously,” Habeeb said.
Speaking on, he explained that Cc-Hub’s Digital Rights and Inclusion has a cybersecurity approach and led to the establishment of DIGnified.
“We want to make sure technology works for everybody, but at the same time ensure the protection of the workers against malicious actors who are constantly working to breach their system and disrupt the workflow,” he added
The Security associate said that CChub came up with a ‘Tech Squad’ programme about four years ago made up of young people who pick interest in learning about technology and specifically in security and deployed them to organisations after training to enable organisations in Nigeria to become more aware of the security of their digital space.
“We also launched the SafeOnlineBus campaign through which we educate the masses on issues around the subject. We are also launching another campaign in collaboration with ESET called ‘Safer Kids Online,” he added.
Olabanji Soledayo, the marketing and retail sales manager at ESET Nigeria, said that is no longer enough to have basic anti-virus on a system.
According to him, threats have been designed to evolve to defeat the basic anti-virus.
He noted that there is a need for a dependable EDR solution in an environment where there are over 100 devices.
ESET Security Day West Africa is part of a process of reflection and discussion between representatives of public institutions, researchers, users, and recognized experts on cybersecurity issues and protection of personal data.
