Ways to Safeguard Your African Startup from Attacks

As African tech-driven startups continue to experience massive expansions, the level of cyberattacks has also increased. Fraudulent hackers in Africa are constantly finding new ways of breaching databases using malware, ransomware and phishing to gain unauthorised access or block access to computers.

Cyberattacks in Africa have resulted in a lot of financial losses in the continent. A study by Serianu, a Kenya-based IT and business advisory, revealed that cybercrimes cost African economies $3.5 billion in 2017. In the same year, annual losses to cybercrimes were estimated at $649 million for Nigeria and $210 million for Kenya. South Africa also loses $157 million annually to cyber-attacks, according to the South African Banking Risk Information Center (SABRIC).

As a startup founder in Africa, you need to protect your startup against cyberattacks, which has huge implications on the competitiveness of your startup in this digital economy. The repercussions of falling prey to cyber hackers can be severe, not to mention the legal liability, financial losses and irreparable damage to customers’ confidence in your business, and loss of highly classified company data.

Here are some key ways to protect your business from these cyber attacks.

READ ALSO: How to Prevent Cybercriminals from Accessing your Bank Account

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing refers to storing and accessing data and computer programs over the Internet instead of your computer’s hard drive.  Cloud technology is more reliable than conventional information technology. This is because cloud service providers invest huge amounts of money in securing their applications and have technology infrastructure and services beyond the capacity of small businesses. 

Using cloud computing is a great strategy for combating malwares – any piece of software designed to damage devices or stealing data and other fundamental cybercrime threats and violations.  The risk of losing digital data and documents is highly reduced when data is not stored on regular storage devices like a laptop, USB stick or an external hard disk drive. Even though cloud data is stored on physical storage devices referred to as ‘server farms’. These storage locations are better situated, secured and run non-stop.

Cloud Computing helps startups to monitor their business irrespective of their location provided they have access to an internet connection.  In a world where cybercrime is gradually taking over, it is absolutely crucial for businesses to be able to enhance their protection and the integrity of their data.

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