South Africa Is Under
Constant Cyber Attack.
Is Your Business Ready?
South Africa recorded 577 cyberattacks every single hour in 2024. The average breach cost a South African business R49–53 million. Ransomware attacks increased 78% year-on-year. And only 5% of SA companies are rated as genuinely resilient.
This is not a technology problem in the background. It is an existential business risk — and it is getting worse every year.
The Data Every SA Business Owner Needs to See
These are not projections or theoretical risks. These are current, published figures from Accenture, SABRIC, Interpol, and the South African Information Regulator.
Cyberattacks hit South African businesses every hour
Average cost of a single data breach in South Africa
Most targeted country globally — behind only the USA and UK
Year-on-year increase in ransomware attacks in SA
Of South African companies rated as genuinely cyber-resilient
Compromised South African accounts in Q1 2024 alone
Who Gets Attacked
Banks and financial institutions. Government departments. Hospitals. Energy providers. Law firms. Schools. Startups. Attackers do not discriminate — they target whoever is most vulnerable.
According to SABRIC, small companies are now the most vulnerable class of target in South Africa.
SMEs are increasingly the primary target because attackers assume smaller businesses have weaker defences — and they are usually right.
POPIA — The Compliance Risk
Every SA Business Carries
Every South African business that holds customer data is legally required to protect it under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). Non-compliance does not just expose you to reputational risk — it exposes you to fines of up to R10 million and 10 years in prison for responsible individuals.
In 2025, the Information Regulator significantly increased enforcement, introducing random SME audits, mandatory breach reporting via a new e-Services portal, and stricter third-party vendor liability. The era of POPIA as a theoretical risk is over.
MaxiCyber helps you document your security posture, detect and report breaches rapidly, and demonstrate to the Information Regulator that your organisation took every reasonable step to protect personal data.
These Attacks Actually Happened.
To South African Organisations.
Every one of these incidents represents real operational disruption, real reputational damage, and real financial liability. They are not hypothetical.
Transnet
A ransomware attack forced Transnet to declare force majeure at South Africa's major ports, crippling container terminal operations for days. Container trucks queued for kilometres outside Durban Harbour.
BaitHive decoys placed across the OT network would have caught the initial reconnaissance phase before payload deployment. CATIS would have flagged the attacker's tooling fingerprint up to 45 days earlier.
See how our platform worksCell C
RansomHub claimed responsibility for a major data breach at Cell C, leaking 2TB of sensitive subscriber data including identity documents, contracts, and financial records.
TCP Mirage at the network edge would have detected the initial access attempts. ShenDNS would have severed the C2 channel before any data could be exfiltrated.
See how our platform worksDepartment of Justice
A ransomware attack encrypted all department systems, halting maintenance of child support payments and bail payments. Systems were offline for several weeks.
NanoFirewall, receiving CATIS intelligence, would have blocked the ransomware variant's infrastructure before encryption began. The MIRT team would have been on-site within 2 hours.
See how our platform worksMediclub / Health Data Breaches
Multiple South African healthcare providers suffered data breaches exposing patient records, billing data, and medical histories — all reportable under POPIA with significant fine exposure.
ASPEN's behavioural analytics would have detected the lateral movement pattern before any patient data was accessed. CATIS crowd intelligence shares these patterns across all protected clients.
See how our platform worksFind Out Where Your Business Is Exposed
You cannot protect what you do not know is visible. Our free vulnerability scan shows you exactly what attackers see when they look at your business — from the outside, in real time.