Trend Micro to hire three managers in Africa in 2019 as part of expansion plan

Trend Micro will be expanding into Africa in 2019, hiring three managers to oversee each region.

The company will focus on East Africa, West Africa, and Central Africa venturing into Africa in 2019.

“Trend Micro will be reigniting its focus in Africa in 2019, East Africa, West Africa and Central Africa will be the first regions that we will be expanding to. In East Africa, we are to hire about seven people in this expansion plan,” said Indi Siriniwasa, Vice President Sub Sahara Africa, trend Micro during a cybersecurity exchange roundtable organized by CIO East Africa.

Multinational cyber security and defense company, Trend Micro, has a 30-year history and is on the verge of making Africa part of its exciting story.

“According to Africa’s Cybersecurity 2018 report, the cost of cyberattacks in Kenya is $210M and $1.048 trillion for the whole of Africa per year with over 90% of African organisations operating below the security poverty line, significantly exposing themselves to cyber security risks,” added Siriniwasa.

This clearly shows the huge talent and skills gap existing in Africa, in Kenya for instance the number of qualified cybersecurity experts is at 1,600 against the expected demand of 40,000 professionals.

During the roundtable, Jerim Maguire, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), NIC Bank also spoke on the role of the CISO in the digital era, a role payment service providers had to adapt as per the Guidance Notes on Cyber security by Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) in August 2017.

As per the guidelines, CBK expected the leadership of institutions to ensure strategic means are incorporated so as to enable a proactive approach to cybersecurity. One of the strategic measures globally accepted and acknowledged by CBK was the introduction of the role of the CISO, aimed at creating an organizational culture of shared cybersecurity ownership.

“Compliance is not equal to security, some organisations implement policies as due diligence and nothing else,” said Jerim Maguire in relation to companies and institutions getting CISOs as a result of a directive form the CBK.

A statement CBK reiterated in the Guidelines on Cybersecurity for payment service providers in August 2018 stating, “In recognition of the different types and varying operational capacities of Payment Service Providers (PSPs) and the need to encourage innovation in the payment sector, certain types of PSPs such as small e-money issuers and Fintech innovators posing limited risk to end users would be exempted from the requirements of having a CISO.”

The guidelines further stated that such institutions are required to conduct adequate self-assessment tests for operational reliability of their internal systems and submit the report to CBK on a bi-annual basis.