Recently, the conversation around cybersecurity has changed. It’s no longer confined to the CTO or CIO’s office – it has become a leading item in the executive boardroom. The reason for this pivot is that executives now see cybersecurity for what it truly is: a visible, prominent business risk with real-life financial and reputational consequences.
Failing to prepare for cyber threats can result in significant reputational and financial losses if customer-facing or internal systems are compromised. However, a robust security posture signals maturity – it informs regulators, investors, and partners that the organisation takes accountability seriously. In this scenario, cybersecurity becomes a reputation asset, not a cost centre. Equally, when customers know that a company handles data responsibly and transparently, it builds long-term loyalty.
However, for companies to truly benefit, they must embed security initiatives throughout the business early in their digital transformation journeys. By doing so, organisations will avoid costly later fixes and financial and reputational risks. This becomes particularly important when dealing with AI or AI agent deployments. Ensuring that cybersecurity measures are embedded into projects from the initial design and concept phase through to testing and implementation guarantees that governance and safeguarding are not an afterthought.
The cyber threat landscape is fast-moving
According to the Interpol Africa Cyber Threat report, the most frequently reported crimes on the continent are related to online scams, phishing, social engineering, financial sextortion, online harassment and BEC scams. The most pressing cyber threats impacting South African businesses, including ransomware, exploitation of cloud misconfigurations, supply chain attacks, hybrid work vulnerabilities, and social engineering, with a particular emphasis on the human element and the evolving role of AI in attack sophistication.
South Africa’s high digital adoption rates, combined with limited skills capacity, create the perfect storm for attackers. Cybersecurity experts are also seeing a sharp rise in AI-driven phishing, deepfakes – particularly those impersonating executives – and supply-chain vulnerabilities, all exploiting human trust and connectivity.
These threats are often enabled by weak human controls and poor digital hygiene. Ransomware is a major threat, because attacks can take companies offline for extended periods and disrupt digital transformation efforts. The rapid move to cloud environments has also led to increased misconfigurations, which attackers exploit, making cloud security a critical focus area.
However, just as cyber attackers are harnessing the power of AI for nefarious purposes, defenders are also using AI and global intelligence to ensure that there are no service gaps for customers, maintaining continuous protection against emerging threats. AI and automation have reduced the mean time of detection and response from hours to minutes or seconds, enabling a rapid mitigation of threats.
A culture of security
Mimecast’s 2024 The State of Human Risk report highlighted that human risk is now the biggest cybersecurity challenge for organisations, overtaking technology vulnerabilities, with 95% of breaches involving human mistakes. Technology alone isn’t enough – culture, communication, and clarity of accountability make the difference.
Human-centric security, zero-trust architectures, and continuous monitoring need to be built into every stage of transformation. The focus on people and culture is a key component of this, blending behavioural science and technology to foster digital awareness. It’s not just about deploying tools; but about developing enduring security habits, delivering effective awareness programmes, and introducing governance models that last beyond the project lifecycle.
Hybrid work has permanently blurred the boundaries between personal and professional networks, and the shift to remote and hybrid work models has introduced new attack vectors, as employees may connect from insecure locations without proper security measures. Training employees to pause, verify, and think critically before clicking has become an important driver for ongoing security management. It’s about balancing flexibility with vigilance.
When implementing a hybrid trust model, it’s also critical to consider every vector for access. Infiltration of networks via a third party such as contractors or service technicians to gain network access is on the rise. Third-party access must be scrutinised, as vendors can introduce vulnerabilities even when internal security is robust.
Organisations must concern themselves with identity management, highlighting the importance of verifying user identities, ensuring correct access rights, and monitoring for anomalies such as unusual login times or locations. Every device with a network connection, including IoT devices, must have its own identity and be subject to strict access controls and least privilege policies.
Critical priorities for business decision makers
As threats evolve daily, so must our defences. Managed security services should be built on adaptive intelligence, combining threat intelligence, automation, and human expertise in partnership with AI. Organisations must commit to continuously updating detection models, refining response playbooks, and integrating lessons from global incidents.
Global sharing across countries and industries is key in making defenders effective. Vodacom has integrated AI-driven detection into its managed security services, enabling the system to learn from each new attack and improve its defensive capabilities. Being connected to a global threat intelligence network allows the company to receive intelligence from incidents worldwide, allowing proactive protection of customers before similar attacks occur locally.
Effective data governance is essential for safe analytics and protecting sensitive information throughout the organisation, and it’s essential to embrace incident response management, with organisations regularly testing their incident response plans to ensure they are effective and actionable in real scenarios.
Vodacom Business clients have seen 15-25% reductions in cyber insurance premiums as a result of improved security posture and risk management. For example, a client avoided millions in production losses by stopping a ransomware attach before encryption, demonstrating tangible business value.
Trust is at the heart of every business’s value
Security-by-design starts with the right mindset, viewing every system, process, and interaction through a risk lens from day one. In practical terms, this means integrating controls and compliance frameworks early in the cloud journey, enforcing identity and access management, encryption, and governance standards across every layer. It also means fostering collaboration between IT, business, and security teams so that thinking about security is everyone’s job, and not just the prerogative of the IT department.
When there is transparency in security assessments and exercises, leaders are empowered to make informed decisions and say yes to innovation faster with managed risks. And when cybersecurity becomes part of the company’s DNA, it drives confidence, compliance, and collaboration. That’s when businesses stop seeing security as friction and start seeing it as strategic advantage.
- Lukhanyo Zahela, Executive Head: Cloud Security (Acting), Vodacom and Anna Collard, SVP: Content Strategy, KnowBe4 Africa
