…Speaking at this week’s Cyber Security Summit, Sasol’s Chief Information Security Officer Ishaaq Jacobs said that deploying artificial intelligence and machine learning can give companies a significant edge in fighting cybercrimes.
Sasol’s Chief Information Security Officer, Ishaaq Jacobs believes that deploying artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in companies can help fight cybercrimes.
He said AI and machine learning can give companies a significant edge in fighting cybercrimes because cybercriminals are also deploying AI to commit crimes.
Jacobs shared these sentiments while speaking at a panel discussion titled: Building Resilience: Safeguarding the Backbone of National Infrastructure, at the Cyber Security Summit in Johannesburg this week.
Sindisiwe Nhlapho Dlamini Moloi, CIO at Transnet, said the cybersecurity threats that South Africa faces are caused by a lack of knowledge and strategy.
“We don’t have cybersecurity policies being implemented, they are there, but they are not being implemented. Furthermore, when you mention cybersecurity, people are scared because there is a lack of adequate training,” she highlighted.
She said a lot of fear associated with cyberattacks is brought on by the lack of knowledge.
The Transnet CIO said another challenge is the lack of adequate budgeting in companies.
“Companies sometimes don’t view Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a critical department, in my view, that needs to change, because if we could switch off company servers, no work would be done,” she asserted.
“Companies need to understand that they cannot just call IT when there is a crisis, they need to understand that ICT is critical in all organizations,” Moloi continued.
Cybersecurity training is critical
Moloi emphasized the importance of training to curb cybercrimes.
“Training is critical, the industry is changing at a rapid pace, and we cannot have people in IT departments without training them. Then you ask them for a world-class strategy, but you give them a bicycle budget,” she said.
Sihle Mthiyane, CIO at NTP Radioisotopes said to balance the need for security with the pressure to maintain accessibility and functionality in critical infrastructure systems, proper risk assessments are needed.
“When you conduct a proper risk assessment in your department, you will find out which assets need protection within the organization. If you don’t do that, there is a risk of over-securing less important information and under-securing more important information,” he explained.
“Government policies need to be clear enough to tell us how we assign access to users, they should also be flexible, so that if there is a new threat in the market, we can fight it,” Mthiyane continued.
He said that government departments need to integrate new technologies like AI and machine learning so that anomalies can be quickly detected.
“We cannot over-emphasize the importance of a proper disaster process,” he went on.
Mthiyane said that in the past when people thought about disasters it was only natural disasters like floods but now cyberthreats need to also be considered as part of disaster planning.
“I believe that the severity of any attack, is aligned to our ability to respond to it,” he concluded.
