Africa leapfrogs peers in security observance

by SAVIOUS KWINIKA 
JOHANNESBURG – AFRICA is now at par with the rest of the world in terms of security culture.

This after leapfrogging legacy issues that plague some of the security environments in Europe.

This is according to a cyber security thinktank and research firm that have nonetheless rated Asia as having the highest security culture score, followed by the United Kingdom.

The continent of Africa is on par with North America, Australia and New Zealand at 73 and leading ahead of Europe at 69,” said Anna Collard, Senior Vice President of Content Strategy and Evangelist, KnowBe4 Africa.

Africa’s rise, according to the 2020 Security Culture Report released by KnowBe4 and CLTRe, might also be explained by the fact that about 90 percent of the African participants are from South African financial institutions.

South Africa is a country where security and risk behaviour is ingrained in people’s daily lives and the financial services sector is ahead of other sectors when it comes to digital security attitudes and behaviours.

“While Africa isn’t quite as compliant as the USA overall, our results show a more positive attitude, norms and behaviour towards securing information,” Collard said.

However, where Africa – and the rest of the world – is struggling is in education, according to the Security Culture Report.

This sector scored particularly badly with communication policies, attitudes and cognition, which is linked to learning.

“It’s an area (education) that we (Africa) have to become aware of, as it puts students and educators at risk,” Collard said.

The 2020 Security Culture Report collected data from more than 120 000 employees across 24 countries to ascertain how deeply security was embedded into company culture.

Botswana, India, Kenya, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States and Zimbabwe were some of the countries included in the survey.

The industries included banking, financial services, insurance, education, transport and energy and utilities.

– CAJ News