2015: the year when businesses safeguard themselves from cybercrime

Closer to home, the South African Post Office lost R42 million when it became a victim of hacking and a number of local websites, including Starbase Telecoms and Infoware Studios, were compromised in a mass hacking of outdated content systems. Most concerning was the attack on a South African Police Service-run website, which revealed the identities of whistle-blowers, possibly jeopardising their safety.

Cybercrime costs the South African economy a whopping R5.8 billion a year with more than one million South Africans falling victim to cybercrime over the past year. Organisations that do not implement robust security measures - which need to be constantly monitored and adapted to emerging and changing threats - expose themselves and their stakeholders to risk.

Check Point Software Technologies has conducted an analysis of the key trends and threats currently facing businesses and governments worldwide.

Precise and refined techniques

What the experts have long referred to as cyberwar is but the trend towards increasingly specific attacks with a targeted objective. These are backed by highly organised groups that use precise and refined techniques, making traditional anti-malware solutions highly ineffective. We are seeing that most of these attacks come from Russia or China, but also from other countries like Japan, India and Brazil.

The attacks on South African organisations were targeted and confirm the global trend of 'cyberwar'. 'Big cybercrime' is promoted by a new generation of organised groups whose operations are increasingly politically motivated.

There is a huge black market in the world that many people are unaware of. For example, a hacker who discovers an unknown security threat can charge about R500,000 for it, or can command a multimillion-rand fee to plan an attack against a government.

Some of the trends and key concepts in the current security landscape in South Africa are: