Firms tipped on cyber risk management
Deloitte, a business advisory, tax and auditing firm, has advised firms to be proactive in managing cyber attacks and risks derived from connectivity to the World Wide Web to protect the integrity and value of data.
Deloitte partner responsible for risk advisory services in the Central African Region, Tricha Simon, made the call at a meeting with the firm’s clients in Blantyre last week.
The meeting came against the background of growing cyber risks, which refers to any risk of financial loss, disruption or damage to the reputation of an organisation from some sort of failure of its information technology systems.
“Use of ICT brings about lots of risks and the need to have those risks evaluated to safeguard not only the continuation of the population, but also the integrity of data that they use for decision-making and financial reporting and we have solutions to manage those risks,” he said.
Simon said companies need to look at the data that they keep in their systems as this can tell them how exposed they are to various risks, but also implement controls that are cost- effective.
“Looking at other aspects of internal controls, every organisation runs on systems of internal control, which also helps to identify risks that they have.
“Companies would not want to implement controls that cost more than the value that would be lost in an event where the control failed. As such, it is important that the act is balanced,” he said.
In his remarks, National Bank of Malawi (NBM) head of internal audit Daniel Jere said cyber crimes continue to be an area of concern with reports indicating that institutions, including commercial banks are at risk while others are bearing the brunt of the act.
“We find the solutions provided by Deloitte to be helpful because issues arising from cyber space can no longer be ignored even for a small economy like Malawi. But with these solutions, more clients other than just NBM would benefit,” he said.
