As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across South Africa, an IT company has told Radio Islam, that many organizations in the country are seen as softer targets for cyberattacks than anywhere else in the world.

Ransomware attacks are some of the most sinister cyberthreats found in the current IT landscape.

It encrypts the data on whichever hosts infects rendering the data unusable and can have devastating effects on a business.

Lukas van der Merwe from T-Systems South Africa says while there has been a steady decline in the frequency of ransomware attacks around the globe, this has not been the case in South Africa which has seen a sharp rise in attacks,

He says the fact that so many South Africans are working from their homes, should be a concern for employers.

“Ransomware tends to be delivered by mechanism like email and this where knowledge of phishing attacks for end users becomes critically important.’

Van der Merwe says ransomware attacks can cost companies millions of Rands and has urged organizations to have  sufficient and regular backup of their data in the event they do come under attacks.

Listen to the interview with Lucas Van der Merwe