Securing your cyber activities ought to be a priority

With all things in life, there are risks, and the same can be said for the plethora of technologies availed to end-users which are not invulnerable to cyber-attacks from cyber criminals.

Sandton-based cybersecurity company Trend Micro hosted a round-table discussion on October 5 where speakers from the company unpacked the latest insights observed through their mid-year report.

Trend Micro’s African cluster country managing director, Gareth Redelinghuys welcomed the small group of attendants, ushering in the feedback session with a brief outline on the kinds of clients Trend Micro works with – The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Interpol and the United States Secret Services.

The company’s technical lead Emmanuel Tzingakis expounded on the scale of cybercrime in Africa, highlighting some of the key challenges.

“I think for an end-user when it comes to cybersecurity and that sort of thing, technology is always evolving – we always have to stay ahead,” Tzingakis added after the event. “Although any technology can be used for good or bad, the user just needs to educate themselves. Users need to know what they’re getting involved in and there’s a lot of ways to find that out.”

The presentations continued with Trend Micro’s solutions architect Zaheer Ebrahim observing some of the key trends in cybercrimes, elaborating on the rise in ransomware and business email compromises, among several other threat factors.

According to Ebrahim, cybercriminals have also been casting a wider net by leveraging vulnerabilities in smaller platforms for more specific targets such as file transfer services, business communications software, and print management software solutions.

Trend Micro’s cloud solution architect Russel Young wrapped up the session by presenting a layered security approach.

“Try to have as many layers of security as you can,” Young advised attendants on dealing with cybercrime. “The more layers you’ve got, the better chance you have.”

To lighten the mood after the roundtable presentation, Trend Micro invited attendees to a ‘paint and sip’ networking opportunity where they were provided with empty wine bottles coated in white paint to be painted over.

To learn more, here is the link to Trend Micro’s full mid-year report: https://www.trendmicro.com/en_za/business.html

Related article:

https://www.citizen.co.za/sandton-chronicle/uncategorized/2022/10/04/how-to-stay-safe-from-cybercrime-while-traveling/

https://www.citizen.co.za/sandton-chronicle/news-headlines/business/2023/06/26/asg-awarded-top-cybersecurity-company-of-2022/