NEWS
NEC XON issues critical cybersecurity warning after credential theft surges in South Africa
Armand Kruger, Head of Cybersecurity at NEC XON
With cybercrime now officially ranked as the top business risk in South Africa, NEC XON has issued a critical alert about the dual threat of massive credential theft and AI-powered cyberattacks sweeping across the region.
With rising incidents and evolving threat tactics, NEC XON is calling on organisations to rethink security from a static, reactive necessity to a strategic, AI-driven business imperative.
“ Credentials have become the skeleton key to an organisation’ s digital assets,” said Armand Kruger, Head of Cybersecurity at NEC XON.“ We’ ve uncovered over 10,000 compromised South African credentials on the Dark Web during recent client assessments. That’ s not just a statistic – it’ s an open invitation to attackers.”
These credentials are harvested using malware known as credential stealers, which infect devices such as smartphones and computers to extract stored login information – whether saved in browsers or on the device itself.
Cyberadversaries use these stolen credentials to access services such as online banking and other consumer platforms, take over accounts and cause significant harm.
“ Cybersecurity shouldn’ t be a grudge purchase. It is a business continuity asset. We work to integrate advanced AI technologies to move beyond detection – towards proactive, adaptive, businessaligned protection. Cybersecurity is fundamentally about risk management – it’ s centered on building resilience, the ability to withstand and recover from cyberattacks,” said Kruger.
Airtel Money Africa partners with pawaPay for seamless international remittances across Africa
Airtel Money Africa, Airtel Africa’ s mobile money arm, has announced an extended partnership with Africa’ s largest mobile money payment service provider( PSP) pawaPay to enable seamless cross-border payments for licensed International Money Transfer Operators( IMTOs) across seven key Airtel Africa markets.
This collaboration officially launches pawaPay’ s service for inbound remittances into Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Malawi, Gabon, Congo Brazzaville and Tanzania. The partnership allows IMTOs to efficiently deliver funds globally, directly to recipients’ Airtel Money wallets – reaching more than 161 million customers – by leveraging pawaPay’ s renowned reliability, scalability and 99.9 % platform uptime.
Africa’ s backend processes, using pawaPay’ s robust PSP infrastructure, which processes over four million transactions daily.
“ We’ re pleased to expand our partnership with pawaPay to advance international remittances across Africa. Their proven reliability and commitment to African consumers make them an ideal partner,” said Ian Ferrao, CEO, Airtel Money Africa.“ This integration empowers International Money Transfer Operators to securely connect with
Airtel Money’ s growing footprint, delivering real-time payments that support financial inclusion and economic growth.”
“ Our mission is to simplify payments for businesses in Africa, and remittances are pivotal,” said Nikolai Barnwell, CEO, pawaPay.“ Deepening our relationship with Airtel Money allows International Money Transfer Operators to leverage our worldclass infrastructure for seamless crossborder payments.”
Building on five years of trusted collaboration in domestic mobile money, this expansion strengthens and simplifies Airtel Money
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