The exponential rise of cyber-attack globally and specifically in Africa (with the recent ransomware that has attacked over 2000 companies-both WannaCry and a variant of the Petya code), has drawn the attention of organizations and stakeholders across various industries to the menace of cyber-crimes and its adverse effect on businesses and the economy.

In an interview with ThisDay Newspaper, Infoprive Services Ltd Managing Consultant, Mr Adetokunbo Omotosho sheds light on how Cyber-attacks affect businesses and how organizations can mitigate cyber-threats.

Excerpts:

May we meet you?

I am the managing Consultant of Infoprive, a business Information Security Company. Infoprive was founded in 2011 with the sole focus of providing top notch and holistic services within the market to address the rising need for cyber protection delivered by skilled, knowledgeable and practical home-grown information security experts.

Many companies are yet to put in place effective cybercrime prevention plans. What is the implication to these companies, their customers and the economy?

The truth is that organizations have started to increase focus on cyber-crime prevention and a good number within the financial services have invested considerable resources in this regard. However, the return on security investment and information security maturity is not yet at optimum levels.

Outside the financial services, justifying security investments for the protection of corporate data is tough, especially within privately held companies and thus information security is mostly non-existent. If maturity levels for security is low in some sectors and almost non-existent in others, it means that the ability of these companies to respond to cybercrime or attacks is limited.

Also, a recent global threat impact index by Checkpoint Software, a leading cyber-security firm, shows that Nigeria has been listed among the countries with the highest risk profile. This erodes the confidence of some customers in digital channels that organizations are increasingly providing to enhance service delivery and accessibility.

The good thing to note is that the recent spate of cyber-attacks has made organisations to increase the focus on cyber defence as top level executives have now seen the dangers of not having adequate information security programs in place.

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