More than 38% of Angolan companies allocate from 6% to 15% to cybersecurity in the general IT (Information Technologies) budget, revealed a study carried out by EY on Cybersecurity in Angola, with Angolan companies in the financial, oil and gas, energy, technology and telecommunications sectors.
The investigation showed that of the cybersecurity budget, 44% is allocated to Risk, Compliance, Resilience, Data Protection and Privacy, pointing out that the adoption of the cloud as an essential tool for the digital transformation of businesses creates its own risks in terms of cybersecurity, and is deserving the attention of Angolan companies.
"The global IT budget is called upon to respond to the digitalization needs of the business, which can extend from support to sales teams, to logistics and production management and even to the operation of support teams, including finance. Investment in cybersecurity usually has to compete with all these needs", Explain Sergio Sa, EY partner and head of the Cybersecurity area for Portugal, Angola and Mozambique.
Entitled 'Cybersecurity: Priorities only after the attack?', EY stresses that investment in cybersecurity is also being accelerated due to the need to protect risks, ensure regulatory compliance and provide security to other digital transformation initiatives.
According to the companies that participated in the investigation, there was a strong sensitivity to the importance and transversality of concerns with cybersecurity, with the CEO being the direct reporting line of the person responsible for cybersecurity in more than 40% of the companies surveyed, which demonstrates the strategic importance attributed to the topic.
"The pace of adoption of new digital technologies is the main challenge for those responsible for cybersecurity in Angola, namely the consolidation and protection of data dispersed in organizations, often as a result of a past that results in multiple systems and a low security culture among users. It is worrying that one of the biggest challenges reported is being able to define and justify the area's budget, which illustrates a serious risk for organizations”, stresses the person in charge.
Of the companies surveyed, 41% say their biggest concern is that cyberattacks threaten customer data, followed by financial data.
"The lower relative importance given to risks related to industrial or operation support systems may indicate an excessively high exposure in areas that may have a high financial impact”, He stresses.
The survey responses reflect a significant threat of exposure to cybersecurity risks through external partners, with a very significant percentage of cases in which there is no assessment or verification of security requirements, as 33% of companies reveal that they assume to manage external risks based on contracts that they do not verify.
As in other technological areas, access to qualified human resources for the cybersecurity area is one of the biggest challenges for Angolan companies. At the same level, those responsible for cybersecurity highlight the complexity of the tool parameterization and optimization processes.
The responses to the questionnaire indicate a wide range and versatility of cybersecurity teams, which are active on multiple fronts, with emphasis on patches/upgrades, network security, vulnerability management and identity and access management.
"It is imperative that companies are aware of the need to develop information security and cybersecurity policies, consider cyber risks in the organization's risk management, create a cybersecurity committee and implement tools to detect threats and vulnerabilities, without forgetting the existence of a well-defined governance model and effective risk management. Only then will you effectively protect your business", Explain Sergio Sa.
It should be noted that cybersecurity is one of the many services provided by the EY Consulting team in Angola, which collaborates with various entities in the national market, in the challenges associated with information security. EY's cybersecurity team has supported the creation of systems and data design, so that organizations can take more risks, make transformational changes and enable innovation with confidence.
