Nithen Naidoo, CEO and founder of Snode, believes that both the challenge and opportunity lies in the fact that we now live in a hyper-connected world. “Our phones connect us to our smart devices; and we all connect to each other at an unprecedented and instantaneous rate. As working from home is the new normal for many organisations, this unparalleled interconnectivity results in natural lapses in our defense. Gaining control of this heterogeneous architecture is the challenge. While the increased frequency of information transfer does create uncertainty, it can be used to our advantage - to predict various high-risk events.”
As such, agile, innovative and aggressive measures must be taken to defend our companies against the rapidly advancing attack strategies of cybercriminals. This means implementing always-on surveillance and real-time risk analysis for potential breaches and adjusting these strategies regularly to remain resilient. Naidoo attests that the power lies in utilising mathematics to process disparate data, from multiple sources, in any format, at scale - all in real-time. “Snode’s technology utilises predictive analytics in order to gain insight into high-risk prevailing patterns. This allows us to proactively respond to threats by detecting imminent high-risk events before they happen - on any device using any data source. This enables us to not only defend digital infrastructure, but go on the offensive to secure data networks from threats that may arise.”
A key facet of the future of cybersecurity is the expansion of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Applied mathematics enables users to detect vulnerabilities before they are exploited, and simulated network attacks are employed to test the robustness of cyber defenses. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg: dynamic data and applied mathematics can be used to predict - and potentially prevent - global catastrophes. “Snode’s technology has the capability to perform crime prediction, and our unique approach to predictive analytics could also predict natural disaster, disease outbreak, threats to sovereign security or public safety. This includes combatting social evils such as human trafficking, organised crime, violent protest and acts of terrorism. All of this can be done using easily accessible, open sources of cyber intelligence. We were excited to showcase some of our exciting new technology at this year’s SA Innovation Summit.”
As cyber threats become more prevalent, companies must not only invest in cyber technology, but in cyber skills development. “As a startup, consistently adapting to the emergence of new threats is paramount to survival, and success. Fostering cybersecurity talent is imperative to this modus operandi, especially amongst the youth of our country. We are so committed to discovering and developing home-grown talent, and our South African-designed and developed technology is a testament to the potential and innovation of South Africans in the global digital defense space,” concludes Naidoo.