Country ill-prepared for big cyberattack

THE malware attack that crashed City Power’s IT system, propels cyberwarfare into a new dimension; it illustrates that a race is in full swing between intruder and defender.

South Africa is ill-prepared for cyber penetration of its computer grid, which could be paralysed and penetrated by fourth-generation malware. Hi-tech criminals are on the prowl.

Over the past four years, financial hacking wiped out $55 billion in shareholder value. The next major cyberassault could develop into a trillion-dollar meltdown. According to reliable data, damage to global institutions cost $400bn a year. It could escalate as fourth-generation cyberattacks increase, bringing the total to $6 trillion by 2022. Recently, a cyber breach by a foreign power involved the theft of 80 million records.

A former cyber head of the UK’S MI5 said there are three certainties in life: death, taxes and a foreign intelligence service in your system.

We would be economically paralysed in a well-planned, cyberblitzkrieg as our modern world is independent on technology and the monetary system. FAROUK ARAIE