Fortifying your wealth against online criminals

As a hopefully better 2021 dawns upon South Africans, cybercriminals, however, will continue to try and liberate individuals from their money and personal data.

South Africa has the third-highest number of cybercrime victims in the world and loses around R2.5bn per year to cybercrime. The main reason for this shocking figure is that SA end-users and businesses, especially small businesses, are “incredibly nai¨ve”, says Professor Basie von Solms, director at the Centre for Cyber Security at the University of Johannesburg.

His statement is echoed in a report by iDefense, an Accenture security company, which notes that SA internet users are “inexperienced and less technically alert” than users in other countries. SA has also been slow to adopt cybercrime legislation and lacks investment in cybersecurity.