South Africans should take note, however, in particular the business sector. In fact if there’s one silver lining one can take from this debacle, according to Henk Olivier, MD of Ozone Information Technology Solutions, this leak should make SMMEs especially concerned about the training of its staff in online best practice.
“It’s not like a leak of this type couldn’t happen at a small to medium business if the staff isn’t educated about data security,” he says.
“Managers need to take note of several approaches. First, they need to educate users on staff. Second, they need to make sure all security patches are up to date. They should also set up system to monitor and control the flow of data that’s leaving the office – either through the internet or through staff members leaving the office with devices such as laptops and smart devices.”
Olivier also says that businesses need to implement clear lines of communication and command through different branches. If something goes wrong, management needs to be able to ascertain how best to quickly plug the problem.
“One of the scariest things about the data leak,” he says, “is that, while a company has owned up to it, no one really knows who was responsible for it. We don’t know where in the chain the leak occurred.”
Sign up with Google