Cyber security is a real thing. The saddest part is that it’s not unexpected anymore and rather common to learn that yet another national business or major retail store has been hacked, and once again millions of customers have their credit-card information in the hands of the wrong people.

It’s just amazing (in all the wrong ways) how cyber criminals still achieve success even after all the security precautions and warnings customers and employees receive—and these cyber crooks are becoming even more brazen than ever. Some even question the work of our cyber policemen, but is it only up to them? Shouldn’t consumers and businesses be vigilant, to cripple the schemes of cyber criminals?

Instead of reacting to cyber criminal schemes, we should rather prevent them. Corporates in South Africa, small businesses and consumers don’t need to wait around to become a victim of cyber crime.

1. Consumers are best protected when they protect themselves

As a consumer, we cannot rely on how well our banks manage cyber security. When we discover the importance of mobile “cleanliness”, we learn that we and our work places are at less risk of suffering data breaches or losses.

We, too, should take minor steps to be safer: protect your smartphone by turning off WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS except when you need them; change passwords frequently; delete your browser history and cookies regularly; cover your webcam with a sticker when it’s not being used. It’s good to know that it’s also up to us, and that we are just as responsible for breaches as retailers or banks.

2. Cyber insurance is selling like hot cakes

It’s a no-brainer why cyber insurance is a growing veld fire in Durban. With all the breaching occurring, it proves to be another heavy cost to companies.

As much as we’d like cyber insurance to have the power to forbid and guard against a breach, it doesn’t. Just like homeowners’ insurance doesn’t disable armed robberies. It can only help victims recover financially. The same goes for cyber crime insurance. Insuring against cyber crime gives companies the financial footing to recover after being hit.

3. Companies managing their own private network

An antivirus? You’ll need more than that to stop these hackers—most breaches happen behind firewalls. Yet, your anti-phishing tools, zero-day malware quarantining and other tech-savvy, next-gen approaches are definitely worth having.

These focus on the root cause of how you got breached in the first place, indicating how hackers got in. Without network access control (NAC) solutions, you’ll never know who has access to your network or who is on your network. It allows you to detect if a client may have plugged in their laptop or if a newbie is on the wrong VLAN. Detecting the roots make it that much easier to find and fix all common vulnerabilities.

Fixing your holes will provide you with a stronger and less exploitable infrastructure.

4. Employees awareness of cybersecurity 

It sucks to say, but for just about any Durban company, employees are the first to be defeated—our weakest link. Too many employees don’t know that by clicking on a link they shouldn’t have behind a firewall could open the whole company to hackers.