Boitumelo Sathekge, Transnet

In its cyber threat trends report for 2024, Cisco says the three most visible threat categories are information stealers (246 million cases), Trojans (175 million incidents), followed by 154 million cases of ransomware. The company recommends, among other things, that firms implement DNS filtering, monitor DNS traffic and make sure that DNS resolvers are securely configured.

Endpoints, too, should be protected through network segmentation and access controls. And, if anyone still needs to hear this, systems should be updated and patched, data should be backed up regularly, and staff training has to happen. But as cyber professionals are constantly being told, it’s a dangerous world out there, and as Wired reported in February, the Chinese hacker group Salt Typhoon has been breaking into US telcos and other organisations since last year, and continues to do so.