By Khalifa Hemed
Published August 12, 2018
While digital transformation presents vast opportunity for businesses today in Africa, the risk of cybercrime has never been greater.
According to the latest Africa Cyber Security Report by a cybersecurity specialist firm called Serianu, the estimated cost of cybercrime across Africa reached US$3.5 billion in 2017. Surveying organisations from across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Mauritius, Namibia, Lesotho and Botswana, the report reveals that more than 90% of African businesses are significantly exposed to cybersecurity risks.
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This could be what has driven players in the Information Communications Technology sector to seek ways of combating this menace by raising cybersecurity standards and practices across Africa.
Liquid Telecom and Serianu have announced what they call a partnership to improve cybersecurity standards and practices across a wide range of industry verticals–banking and finance, insurance, governments, healthcare, manufacturing and hospitality and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)–across the continent.
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Liquid Telecom and Serianu say the collaboration brings together the former’s fibre network, data centres and cloud-based offerings with the latter’s business-focused security monitoring and analytics solutions to offer end-to-end protection for businesses of all sizes.
The arrangement enables Liquid Telecom to offer cybersecurity assessment, monitoring, training and incident response through a combination of Seriaunu’s consulting, managed services and threat intelligence besides providing connectivity and hosting needs to organisations.
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“Through this partnership with Serianu, Liquid Telecom is not only ensuring that customers using our network and data centres facilities have access to the very latest cybersecurity solutions, but that we are also raising the overall level of cybersecurity standards and practices across the region,” says Ben Roberts, Group CTIO at Liquid Telecom.
Customers of Liquid Telecom will have access to Seriaunu’s Africa Cyber Immersion Centre in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The research, innovation and training facility that are said to be providing an experimental environment for businesses to test their cybersecurity capabilities will help address the cybersecurity skills shortage facing the region by providing additional training for IT professionals across the public and private sectors.
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“Supporting local businesses and initiatives is one of the key pillars that both Serianu and Liquid Telecom share in common. Through this partnership, we will explore new ways to empower existing and future customers with quality, home-grown cybersecurity solutions that will help reduce the risk and cost from cybercrime across the region,” says William Makatiani, Chief Executive Officer of Serianu.
The agreement with Serianu, Liquid Telecom says, will enable the Kenya-based cybersecurity company to scale at speed across Liquid Telecom’s network across 13 countries in eastern, central and southern Africa.