The number of ransomware attacks on South African organisations recorded by Microsoft rose from seven to 17 in the year to June. That was the third-steepest percentage rise among the 12 countries the company singles out in its latest global threat assessment. The Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2026, published this week, covers the period from…
Richard Firth has paid a ransom and seen what it bought. Now the MIP Holdings CEO wants South Africa to outlaw such payments. “I think banning ransomware payments will be a powerful deterrent,” Firth told TechCentral on Tuesday. MIP, which supplies software to insurers, paid cybercrime group The Gentlemen a sum Firth described as “substantial”…
Pieter Nel, regional head for SADC at Sophos in South Africa. (Image: Supplied) South African organisations continue to fall victim to ransomware, with compromised credentials the most common technical root cause of attacks, a lack of protection the leading operational cause and user devices the most common entry point. This is according to the latest…
Anand Eswaran, CEO at Veeam. There is a growing disconnect between how confident organisations feel about cyber resilience and the reality of recovery outcomes, according to Veeam Software’s recently released Data Trust and Resilience Report 2026. The report is based on insights from more than 900 senior IT, security and risk leaders globally. Veeam said while…
NetApp® (NASDAQ: NTAP), the Intelligent Data Infrastructure company, and Elastio are helping enterprises enhance their cyber resilience with a layered defense that extends from production storage into recovery data. Security teams must be ready to address threats at every layer of their technology stack, including ransomware that moved quietly through production before it was caught…
Tony Anscombe, chief security evangelist at ESET. The evolution of ransomware means that in 2026, African organisations can expect more targeted phishing attacks, the rise of endpoint detection and response (EDR) killers and AI-powered ransomware. This is according to cyber security firm ESET’s H2 2025 Threat Report, based on telemetry from threat data sourced in…
By paying ransomware, organisations are leaving themselves open to repeat attacks and long-term business disruption, according to Lloyd Timcke, regional director for Africa and Israel at cybersecurity firm Rubrik. At a cybersecurity event in Johannesburg last week, the company said attackers are increasingly exploiting identity systems such as Active Directory and cloud identity providers, allowing…
Ransomware is a type of malicious software that makes a victim’s data, system or device inaccessible. It locks the target or encrypts it (converting text into an unreadable form) until the victim pays a ransom to the attacker. It’s one of the most widespread and damaging forms of cyberattacks affecting organisations around the world. An…
Ransomware and GenAI risks are on the rise. In December 2025, organisations globally faced sustained cyber pressure, as the average number of cyber attacks per organisation per week reached 2 027, a 1% increase from the previous month and a 9% increase from December 2024. In SA, companies faced 1 850 attacks per week, with financial…
AI-powered cyber attacks and ransomware top the cyber security challenges for 2026, warn cyber security firms. In November 2025, global organisations faced an average of 2 003 cyber attacks per week, driven by ransomware expansion and GenAI-linked risks, representing a 3% increase from October and a 4% rise year-on-year. This is according to cyber security…
