In an age where computing devices have become very common and mobile penetration is on the rise, security breaches are a concern with hackers constantly gaining unauthorised access to individual social media platforms and e-mail accounts on a daily basis.
Despite the existence of mechanisms such as passwords that are meant to safeguard accounts, security breaches continue to be recorded with researchers attributing most cases to human error.
"On an individual basis, you can see that online users are vulnerable to cyber attacks such as malware identity theft, account hacking and fraud this is caused by lack of knowledge about how one should handle their account. The complex password provides a false sense of security in light of the fact that complex passwords are not as strong as most people think and that most password strategies inevitably lead to people following them blindly," said Ashley Tambowoneyi, a cybersecurity consultant.
The Cyber Security Bill had provided hope online users will gain a fair measure of protection but the slow pace in implementing the cyber bill into law has emerged as a major worry in the ICT sector.
"We need to move fast to implement the bill, that bill has been there but it hasn't been implemented and forced into law we want that bill to be implemented as quickly as possible because once that bill is implemented to will help to protect the individuals the institutions and even the security institutions will be able to be protected as well," an ICT expert Dr Dunny Derere said.
As online access continues to rise, cyber attacks, data breaches and identity theft are among a plethora of challenges the ICT sector has to deal in a bid to limit the vulnerability of individuals and institutions.
