Chinenye Anuforo, [email protected]

The co-founder and the chief operating officer of Digital Encode Limited, Dr. Peter Adewale Obadare, has stated that no company is totally immune to cyber attacks.

The information technology expert noted that the high dependency on the Internet and adoption of digital transformation has led to an increase in cybercriminal activities.

The Digital Encode boss stated this at the 2020 National Information Technology Reporters’ Association’s Virtual Innovative Tech Webinar recently. He explained that cybersecurity readiness and resilience was a journey not a destination.

According to him, cybercrime damage is projected to cost the world over $6 trillion annually in 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015.

Speaking on the biggest threat to enterprise organisations, Obadare stated that findings have shown that, every 11 seconds, businesses will fall victim to a ransomware attack in 2021.

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“More than 90 per cent of successful hacks and data breaches stem from phising scams. Most frequent attack methods are social engineering, advanced persistent threats and unpatched ransomware.

Obadare also stressed that cybersecurity/fraud was a discussion topic for the board and not for the data centre alone. Backing up his claim, he explained that 60 per cent of small businesses that suffer cyberattack are out of business within six months. He also highlighted that 53 per cent security personnel believed that their enterprise would experience a cyberattack in the next 12 months.

While urging vigilance, he said the survey revealed 87 per cent believe that the rapid shift to work from home will increase the risk of data privacy and protection issues. Also, 54 per cent believe hackers will take advantage of the pandemic to disrupt organisations. However, 51 per cent (only half) are very confident in their security team to detect and respond to cyber threats during the pandemic.

Although much is at stake, the Digital Encode boss lamented that the confidence level is low.

Speaking further, he advised organizations to invest in people and process and not only in technology, in an effort to collectively combat the looming threat.