TALKING

Are your first responders in place for a cyberattack?

Ryno Le Roux, Cyber Operations Manager, NEC XON

You cannot schedule a cyber-attack, but you can prepare for it. Effective incident response is not just about damage control – it is about being ready.

“ A well-rehearsed incident response plan empowers your team to act decisively, recover rapidly, and emerge stronger. Those who plan, survive. Those who don’ t? They become someone else’ s cautionary tale,” says Ryno Le Roux, Cyber Operations Manager at NEC XON.

Attackers don’ t wait for board approval. They slip through a misconfigured firewall at 02:00 on a Sunday or phish a distracted employee just before quarter-end. At that moment, every control you’ ve bought is judged in milliseconds.

The critical differentiator isn’ t whether you’ re attacked – it’ s how quickly and effectively you respond. Suggested approach: You disrupt your own operations and make certain than let a threat actor do it for you. It’ s a hard truth that many organisations realise only after the damage is done.

Incident response is the structured process organisations follow when facing a cyber threat. Whether dealing with malware, unauthorised access or data exfiltration, the goal is simple: detect the incident, contain it, eradicate the threat, and recover normal operations as swiftly as possible. Crucially, incident response also ensures that every attack becomes a lesson – strengthening defences and refining preparedness for what comes next.

A delayed or poorly executed response can be devastating. The longer an attack persists, the more damage is done – both technically and reputationally.

An effective incident response strategy is critical for four key reasons:

Limiting the damage

Fast containment prevents attackers from spreading laterally or exfiltrating valuable data.

Protecting core assets

Data is the lifeblood of modern organisations. A decisive response can stop attackers before they access sensitive information. Regulatory compliance

From GDPR to POPIA, regulatory bodies demand demonstrable control over data protection. incident response helps organisations respond swiftly and in line with these obligations.

Preserving trust

How a company responds in the wake of a breach often matters more than the breach itself. Customers respect transparency and speed; they don’ t forgive silence or confusion.

Incident response isn’ t about cleaning up after an attack – it’ s about disrupting the attacker mid-action.

That might mean:

• Disabling compromised identities to block further access

• Disconnecting infected systems to halt lateral movement

• Blocking malicious IPs to cut off communication channels

• Removing malware completely, not just isolating it

• Shutting down attacker command infrastructure, denying them the ability to coordinate the breach further

Technology plays a central role in enabling swift and accurate incident response. Automated detection, AI-driven risk modelling, and integrated incident response platforms give defenders the speed and coordination they need when every second counts.

A well-rehearsed incident response plan empowers your team to act decisively, recover rapidly, and emerge stronger.

The first of these is infrastructure costs, as high computational requirements for training and running models can lead to significant cloud or hardware expenses. Fine-tuning and maintaining AI models can become costly, particularly when customising them for specific use cases or keeping them updated over time.

Talent acquisition and retention also requires substantial financial investment, whether it be the hiring of AI experts or the training of existing staff. In addition, data preparation – the cleaning and organising of data for model training – can be resource-intensive and thus costly.

Organisations that take a strategic, measured approach to Generative AI will be able to take advantage of its full potential – driving efficiency, innovation and sustainable growth in Africa’ s evolving digital landscape. p

32 INTELLIGENTCIO AFRICA www. intelligentcio. com