Survey: More than 90 percent of Ugandan businesses operate below cyber security line
The 2017 cyber security survey in Uganda has revealed shockingly that over 90 per cent of businesses are operating below the cyber security line.
These include; financial institutions, insurance and mobile money agents and telecom companies among others.
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The survey was conducted by Serianu, a Pan African, research driven cyber security consulting firm; that enables organisations to anticipate, detect, respond and contain cyber threats.
While presenting the report to IT stakeholders on Tuesday in Kampala, Serianu managing director, William Makatiani said the cost of cyber attacks on Ugandan businesses stands at US $ 42 million annually, while majority of the organisations; at 55 per cent spend less than US $ 5000 on cyber security annually.
“The Banking sector is still the most targeted industry in Uganda, while 96 per cent of cyber security incidents either go unreported or unresolved”, said Makatiani.
He added that fake news has hit Uganda’s media industry as we increasingly see unverified and often conjured up news being circulated through various platforms.
“Most organizations’ cyber security programmes are tool oriented, while 90 per cent of parents don’t understand what measures to take to protect their children against cyber bullying”, he added.
He recommended for vigilance on protection of companies IT servers’ passwords, which are vulnerable to cyber criminals that connive with company employees.
“We need to use our human intelligence, to curb this increasing vice”, he added.
Henry Kayiza, the Acting Assistant Commissioner, Cyber Crime Unit in the Uganda Police; said lack of IT knowledge among majority Ugandans in responsible managerial positions, is the root cause of cyber security vulnerability among many organisations.
He said some companies hire the services of private individuals, to install cyber security systems in their IT section, but do not take precautions to verify whether such individuals are people of integrity.
“As a result, such quack IT experts connive with bank employees to fleece clients’ money, which is why financial institutions should work with credible IT consultant firms to guarantee safety of their clients’ money”, he said.
In his key note address’, National Information Technology Authority (NITA Uganda) director for Information Security, Arnold Mangeni, reiterated the need for business companies to work with government’s National Information Security Network, to guarantee safety of their IT servers.
“We rush to put IT systems in place, but forget to put in place security. We need to increase regular frequencies to protect ourselves from cyber attacks”, he cautioned.
The cyber security 2017 report was witnessed by; banking sector chief executives, cyber security consultants and university IT students among others.
Ambrose Gahene
