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ICT

300 billion inference requests per day Securing data with the industry’s first quantum-safe system
with just one millisecond of latency. For In a hybrid cloud environment, including on-premises and public cloud resources, it is
consumers, this could mean reducing critical to protect against today’s threats and posture against cyber criminals who may
the time and energy required to handle be stealing data now for decryption later. Building on IBM technologies such as pervasive
fraudulent transactions on their credit encryption and confidential computing, IBM z16 takes cyber resilience a leap further
cards. For both merchants and card by protecting data against future threats that could evolve with advances in quantum
issuers, this could mean a reduction in computing.
revenue loss as consumers could avoid As the industry’s first quantum-safe system, IBM z16 is underpinned by lattice-based
the frustration associated with false cryptography, an approach for constructing security primitives that helps protect data and
declines, where they might turn to other systems against current and future threats. With IBM z16 quantum-safe cryptography,
cards for future transactions. businesses can future-ready their applications and data today.
IBM z16’s secure boot (meaning that bad actors cannot inject malware into the boot
Other threats including tax fraud and process to take over the system during start-up) and quantum-safe cryptography can help
organised retail theft are emerging clients address future quantum-computing related threats including harvest now, decrypt
as challenges for governments and later attacks which can lead to extortion, loss of intellectual property and disclosure of
businesses to control. Real-time other sensitive data.
payments and alternative payment
methods like cryptocurrencies are Modernising for hybrid cloud
pushing the limits on traditional fraud IBM has spent the last three years making significant investments into its commitment
detection techniques. Applying the new to embracing open-source technology on the IBM zSystems platform, and establishing
capabilities of IBM z16 to other industries a common developer experience across the hybrid cloud. These solutions are designed
can help create an entirely new class of to help its clients leverage their investments in — and the strengths of — their existing
use cases, including: IT infrastructure, clouds and applications in a seamless way, while giving them the
• Loan approval: to speed up approval flexibility to run, build, manage and modernise cloud native workloads on their choice
of business or consumer loans of architecture.
• Clearing and settlement: to With IBM z16, IBM used a highly collaborative, client-centred approach that deeply
determine which trades and/or engaged hundreds of individuals from more than 70 clients, a practice that is already
transactions may have a high-risk underway for future IBM mainframe systems. IBM z16 will be generally available on
exposure before settlement May 31, 2022. n
• Federated learning for retail: to better
model risk against fraud and theft. For more information, visit Ross Mauri’s blog at https://www.ibm.com/cloud/blog/ibm-z16

SA’s hybrid workers consider cybersecurity protocol either

complicated, painful, time consuming or unimportant

ven though 53% of employees believe that securing their work devices are facial recognition technology and 87%
important and simple to do, there is still a significant portion of the workforce that would feel comfortable using fingerprint
Emust become comfortable with cybersecurity practices if hybrid working in SA is to recognition to access their network. This
be safe and effective. compares favourably to the UK where
• Fewer than 29% of employees trust their companies to keep their data secure in a 55% of workers surveyed stating they
hybrid work environment would be okay to use facial recognition
• More than 33% of South Africa’s distributed workforce needs to find ways of and 69% would be comfortable with
circumventing the security measures of their organisations to remain productive. fingerprint recognition.
• One in four employees (24%) choose to use the same password for multiple accounts This suggests an increasing
and applications, putting their business’ network and devices at risk. familiarity with the biometric
• Just 18% say they use a secure password manager for their applications and online authentication methods available
services. to smartphone users. With almost 7
out of 10 SA workers believing that
Breadth of cybersecurity measures their organisation takes cybersecurity
To protect valuable information, employers are putting certain measures in place, with seriously, there is a disconnect with
VPNs, multifactor authentication, and regular software updates being three of the most what they believe their responsibilities
popular. Interestingly, nearly 60% of South African workers would be willing to embrace are in this regard. n

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