Dell Technologies, a leading global ICT firm, has reported that 52% of companies in Africa lack the capacity to handle a large-scale cyberattacks.
The company made this disclosure in a report presented at a forum in Lagos, organized in collaboration with CWG and Mitsumi, to share insights on how companies could frontally tackle the increasing incidents of cyberattacks globally.
According to the report, the lack of preparation by enterprises to combat the menace had led to about 600% surge in the rate of cyberattacks in Africa over the last two years.
The ICT firm reported that 61% of companies in the region were affected by ransomware in 2020 alone, thereby causing them about $4 billion loss even as it added that report’s finding also reflected that 88% of all data breaches were caused by mistakes of employees.
In his presentation at the forum, the company’s Regional Sales Manager, Ashraf Helmy, said the attacks increased due to the value of data.
The industry expert expatiated: “Data is the number 1 asset in the world today. The ubiquity of data is also what also increases the vulnerability of companies. The implication is that companies now face multiple penetration points. A report by Verizon showed that 90% of data breaches are financially motivated.
“The question is not if you will be attacked, because you will be attacked. The question is when you are attacked what recovery tool would you use?”, Helmy queried.
With many reports indicating that most companies that suffered attacked eventually paid a ransom in the hopes of recovering the data but never did in most cases, Helmy said that Dell had developed tools, including a data vault, that can help companies recover any damaged data on their systems by cybercriminals.
Earlier in his keynote address delivered at the forum with the ‘Tech-Driven Future-Building Tomorrow’s Innovation’, Senior Systems Engineer at Dell Technologies, Adekunle Windapo, advised organizations to invest in technology and also build synergies through collaboration in order to remain relevant and competitive in the fast-changing global economic space.
The expert promised that his company, which recently invested $7.9 billion in research and development, will help organizations to turn their ideas into innovation for profitability through its solutions.
In his remarks the Chief Operating Officer at CWG, Afolabi Sobande, described the partnership between CWG, Dell Technologies, and Mitsumi as the best in expertise and resources to create platform for thought leadership, knowledge sharing, and collaboration.
