In light of the increasingly apparent and potentially catastrophic online threats to cyber security, business leaders and organisations have been charged to act and invest accordingly in robust cyber security systems to mitigate cyber security risk and ensure data privacy.
Organisations and business leaders are urged to invest in the area of hardware, software and human resource, given that the biggest cyber security threats are humans who are mostly ignorant on cyber security.
At the maiden Information Security (InfoSec) and IT Leaders Conference on Cyber Security, held yesterday in Accra, the organisations were told to evolve from managing security risk to becoming integrated business enablers, and not only should they possess the necessary technical cyber security capabilities, but also exhibit excellent leadership skills.
The maiden conference, organised by Delta3 International, a cyber security firm with operations in Europe and Africa, in partnership with IBM, the global technology provider, sought to reposition information security as a key business enabler and also to share new knowledge in information technology and information security.
The all-day conference focused on exploring the current security landscape in Africa and how Africa and business leaders could prepare for the future challenges of cyber security and data privacy.
Topics discussed were Anatomy of Cyber Attack, Africa Cyber Security Landscape and Threat Trends 2019, Mitigating Cyber Threats through Effective Leadership and BCP, Digital Transformation: From AI & IOT to CLOUD & Blockchain, Mitigating Cyber Threats through Business Continuity Planning, and HR Leadership – The Role of HR in Mitigating Cyber Security and Threats from within.
The conference had breakout sessions on different issues, and these groups focused on how to move organisations forward so that more and more organisations will take cyber security seriously, take customer data seriously and understand the challenges coming down when it comes cyber security.
Kwame Opoku, an innovations and trend consultant, who made the call, stated that as businesses’ dependency on technology grows, breaches are no longer limited to a specific platform or devices.
He also said everything is connected and everything is a target for criminals, who are increasingly collaborating to escalate their efforts; therefore, businesses must scale up their efforts to fight cyber security and data protection.
According to him, government is doing more in ICT; however, more efforts have to be channeled towards that area.
For business leaders, he advised them not to trade and have sensitive conversations on platforms like WhatsApp and Google because it is not safe and has no end-to-end encryption as it posits, and advised they rather carry out such activities on other secure platforms such as ‘Brave, signal or slacker”.
He further encouraged them to find their vulnerabilities and adopt the kind of protection which suits them.
Speaking on the topic ‘The Role of HR Mitigating Cyber Security Threats from within’, Anita Wiafe Asinoe, Managing Director of OML Africa, said there was the need for the roles of HR managers to be defined to promote best practices.
She called for the training of HR leaders on cyber security, and encouraged them to apply sanctions where security due diligence is breached.
In addition, she urged HR managers to educate themselves on how to attract and retain cyber security professionals and not just look at degrees.
Dele Aden, Managing Partner at Delta3 International, in an interview, said the objective of the conference was to get leaders of businesses and various divisional leaders in businesses to hold conversations on cyber security and how everyone can be prepared when something happens.
The conference was under the theme ‘Mitigating Cyber Risks through Effective Leadership’.
Source: The Finder
