From awareness training to the balance sheet: A leader's guide to building true cyber resilience

FOR years, the focus of Cybersecurity Awareness Month has been on education - a necessary, but unfortunately incomplete, part of the solution. Despite countless training sessions and phishing simulations, the financial consequences of cyber incidents continue to climb.

- Richard Ford, Regional CTO (SA) at Integrity360.

According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach for a South African organisation now stands at a staggering R41.1 million.

This number confirms a difficult truth: awareness is not the same as resilience. Knowing that fast food is unhealthy does not, on its own, create a healthy lifestyle.

Similarly, knowing about cyber threats does not, on its own, protect an organisation's balance sheet.

The conversation in the boardroom must evolve from asking "Are our employees aware?" to "Is our business resilient?". Resilience is not a passive state of knowledge; it is an active, measurable capability to anticipate, withstand, and recover from cyberattacks, ensuring the organisation continues to function and protect its value.

Building the 'human firewall' higher

The idea of a 'human firewall' often frames employees as the weakest link in the security chain.

A more productive approach is to view them as a critical, front-line layer of a broader defence strategy. This requires more than just awareness; it demands clear, simple processes.

When an employee spots a potential threat, is the process for reporting it immediate and unambiguous? Do they know exactly who to contact without having to consult a manual? Empowering employees means equipping them not just with knowledge, but with straightforward, drilled procedures that make the right action the easiest action.

This transforms them from a potential liability into a distributed threat detection network.