Addressing the tech skills shortage needs to become a national imperative, says Mancosa
bizcommunity.com – 20 September 2024 – South Africa has faced two major cyber security breaches this year and has been the victim of ongoing cyber abuse over a significant period, which cost millions of rands in losses.
Over the past 10 years, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and the Department of Public Works lost over R400m to cyber attacks. Further, the breach of the National Health Laboratory Services and the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission this year has exposed South Africa’s weaknesses regarding cyber security and the growing global tech skills shortage when addressing these risks.
“The World Economic Forum (WEF) released a report in January that provided a global outlook for cybersecurity. While cyber inequity is a major issue, the growing skills shortage is a major issue that will make addressing this risk very difficult,” says Trisha Govender manager: Mancosa School of Information and Digital Technology (SIDT).
Cyber inequity
According to many risk analysts, cyber risk is one of the biggest growing concerns that countries need to deal with. As evidenced by the SARB and Department of Public Works losses, cyber events can be crippling for economies, with many companies not having the ability to recover from a R400m loss.
The WEF points out that the growth of cyber risk has been significant. In 2022, the cybersecurity economy grew twice as fast as the global economy. The report adds that in 2023, this growth was four times faster.
Conversely, the report adds that cyber resilience has dropped by 31% since 2022, with the distance between cyber-resilient organisations enough to survive significant attacks and those who are fighting from the trenches growing at an alarming rate. The cost of accessing adequate cyber services, tools, and talent and the adoption of cutting-edge technology by larger organisations in the ecosystem are two core factors contributing to this inequity.