Placing Technology At The Centre Of Your Recovery Journey

When it comes to digitisation, it is not really a choice, but rather about compliance, competitiveness, and survival. Digital transformation is inevitable, and the companies that accustom their operations around it are the ones that survive in the long run.

At the Africa SaccoTech Forum, the Executive Head for Cloud & Cybersecurity at Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Richard Muthua, delivered a keynote speech about how businesses are placing technology at the centre of their recovery journey for businesses in this digital transformation era. Muthua noted that the situation currently is that most companies are being forced to get into the digital transformation era without knowing that they are increasing the surface for risk and attack.

He further said cyber breaches are almost a guarantee over time as the business grows. In such cases, a lack of resilience when not protecting the company becomes fatal to the business. The trouble is at the end of the day, there is a limited representation of technology across the business.

“As you look at digital transformation, technology, cybersecurity, and cyber resilience, it is no longer about the IT Manager and the CIO. It is about the business. It is a conversation that goes to the board level.”

Involving your whole business is important in protecting the business. For Saccos, all members need to be involved in the cyber-protection conversation.

98 per cent of breaches that happen within any organisation are through exploring human error. It’s not about the systems being bad, it’s about human beings being, well, human. This is why attacks from within are probably the most fatal to a business. It is rather like insider trading.

Making Digital Transformation Resilient

Muthua advised IT professionals on how they can make their businesses and Saccos more resilient through their digital transformation journeys. The first step in building resilience is in cyber assets, business processes, and business operations. This is where a business does a self-assessment and reviews any loopholes and risks.

The next step is the basics, which are building connectivity and putting intelligence into the connectivity. After this, you look at how you manage your data, protect your data, your business, and your clients – in the case of Saccos, members.