Not too long ago, only two things were guaranteed – death and taxes. However, in the wake of the fourth industrial revolution, businesses can almost be assured of a cyber-security breech in the near future. Just last week, South Africans received a wake-up call when millions of personal records were exposed to the public in the latest and greatest data leak that the country has ever seen. Although the data, which had included names, addresses and even identity numbers, had been exposed and not hacked, it is evident that South Africa is perhaps too relaxed as far as cyber-security protection is concerned.
However, South Africans are no stranger to the effects of cybercrime. Recent statistics by the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC), indicate that South Africa reportedly has the third highest number of cybercrime victims worldwide, losing about R2.2 billion a year. Mobile phones are particularly vulnerable, with over 1.5 million new incidents in the first quarter of 2017 alone, according to McAfee Labs. The information superhighway is clearly vulnerable to modern-day highway robbery, compounded by the fact that we are a mobile-driven society.
There has also been a general consensus that smartphones have lacked the security measures necessary for the sensitive data they hold, making them vulnerable to security attacks. This is particularly worrying, given that Forrester’s annual security survey stated that 69% of the workforce use their personal smartphone to conduct daily work tasks. Mobile vulnerability is consequently a real concern for businesses whose employees rely on their mobile phones and BYOD policies in the modern-day workforce.
Precautions, therefore, need to be in place to empower businesses to allow employees to become more flexible in the way they work, while preserving the privacy of both professional and personal data.
Huawei Mate 10, which is due to be released in South Africa next month is new AI-enabled smartphone that is powered by the Kirin 970 chipset, which isn’t cloud dependant, meaning that its AI processor does not upload any private data to the cloud. Cloud has been long considered as less secure than traditional storage approaches, as your data resides on systems that you don’t actually own. On-device processing ensures that any data collected or analysed does not actually leave the device. Added benefits of this security feature is that it is faster, saves data traffic and consumes less power.
Ultimately, smartphones need to satisfy the demand for personalised and real-time AI experiences, such as capturing the perfect family gathering on social media, while providing private data protection. The Kirin 970 breaks through existing bottlenecks in mobile hardware, effectively redefining the collaborative relationship between devices and the cloud, while completely altering the user experience. Security needn’t be a concern anymore when interacting with the future of smart phone technology.
Edited by Fundisiwe Maseko
Follow Fundisiwe Maseko on Twitter
Follow IT News Africa on Twitter
