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KnowBe4 unveils annual security snapshot for Sub- Saharan Africa ’ s big three
As is often said , Africa is not a
country – and few things bring this fact home more than KnowBe4 ’ s African edition of its annual What Keeps You up at Night Report . The 2020 edition , now available , conducted surveys in 18 African countries , asking more than 500 organisations about their concerns across a variety of security topics .
Additionally , the report provides specific survey details on the three Sub-Saharan giants : Kenya , Nigeria and South Africa .
“ It ’ s a known fact that African countries and organisations are being targeted more actively by cybercriminals , to the level that it ’ s one of the fastest-growing regions in terms of cybercrime ,” said Anna Collard , SVP , Content Strategy and Evangelist KnowBe4 Africa . “ But when you get down to the specifics , the differences between the survey ’ s continental averages and its three biggest Sub-Saharan economies are quite striking .”
The three respective appendices of the report make for captivating reading . Spread across six main categories – cyber threats , compliance security , security initiatives , users , resources and executive issues – here is a snapshot for each country :
Kenya
In general , Kenya is split on the priorities of security threats such as phishing and ransomware . On average , at least half of organisations don ’ t regard these and other threats as more than somewhat concerning – considerably lower than the continental totals . But that also means that the other half of the organisations rank such threats as very concerning , with 31 % saying they are kept awake at night by the possibility of business email compromise .
Kenya ’ s concerns over security initiatives mirror the continent ’ s worries – 46 % are kept awake at night about security awareness training and supply chain security , respectively . In contrast , the country is not as concerned about different user security issues – African averages lean more towards extreme concerns , yet Kenya ’ s focus tends to split between somewhat and very concerned .
Nigeria
Nigeria is the clear outlier in security matters , taking some very different views on what to be concerned about . On the one hand , no country is more worried about ransomware : 59 % of Nigerian companies say this keeps them up at night , though 40 % are only somewhat concerned . Malware attracts a similar split . Yet , 74 % of Nigerian companies are only somewhat concerned about data breaches .
They are not worried much about security initiatives . Only multi-factor authentication truly keeps them awake at night ( 74 %), with the next massive concern , identity management , sits at 27 %. Here ’ s the kicker : 89 % of organisations there are not at all concerned about security awareness training . When user risks do surface , two types of users solicit similar levels of security concerns – remote workers ( 67 %) and negligent workers ( 41 %). Eightyseven percent of Nigerian companies are somewhat concerned about malicious insiders and 69 % about password sharing .
South Africa
Attitudes in South Africa align closely with the continent ’ s averages , though there are some differences . While other countries tend to worry most about ransomware , South African organisations rank phishing as extremely ( 46 %) and very ( 35 %) concerning . Malware and business email compromise reflect similar levels of worry – and though ransomware is lower than these categories , at 50 %, it ’ s the threat keeping most businesses awake at night .
South African views around security initiatives almost mirror those of Kenya : 46 % are extremely concerned about security awareness training and supply chain security . Thirty-eight percent are also being kept awake by privileged access management , incident response , securing the cloud , and multi-factor authentication . Remote workers keep 57 % of South African companies up at night , while negligent insiders ( 44 %) and users sharing passwords ( 41 %) are not far behind . •
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