iOCO has joined forces with Spotica, a global cloud technology provider that is revolutionising cyber security with a cloud-based, digital information security management and advisory system that is simple, intuitive and delivers significant savings* for companies of all sizes.

The platform enables the holistic management and visibility of IT security, privacy and risk management.

This comes as South African companies race to meet the 1 July POPIA compliance deadline. Intended to safeguard personal information, the POPI Act places the spotlight on data breaches and information theft.

“Cyber attacks have grown exponentially since the beginning of COVID-19. The rapid change in the technology landscape makes it difficult for most companies to keep in step, making them vulnerable to significant risks, including the risk of non-compliance with POPIA,” says Conrad Steyn, executive head of Advisory at iOCO.

“In our experience, many of the clients we advise are grappling with numerous challenges when it comes to effectively managing their cyber security risks, particularly those with limited resources dedicated to the security function. These include knowing which controls to apply to which assets, which reporting metrics to use, establishing effective communication channels between IT and group risk and compliance (GRC) to compile a risk register, and being able to translate the detail into critical insights for the benefit of the board,” says Steyn.

At its core, Spotica reduces a multitude of risks into a smaller list that makes the risks easier to understand and manage. Additionally, it translates complex standards and technical jargon into role-specific, everyday workplace language.

Spotica is one of the only solutions that provides step-by-step advisory to guide board members, managers and technical specialists in fulfilling their respective duties towards securing information and data privacy. It sets out a best-practice approach to cyber risk management that can be adopted by all businesses, large and small.

“The Spotica solution makes a complex environment easy to manage and creates simplicity in a world of complexity. It focuses your risk management. Furthermore, our listed clients need to be ISO certified and the simplified user interface facilitates a much more user-friendly approach,” says Steyn.

Originally from South Africa, Spotica co-founder and CEO Anton van Loggerenberg is enthusiastic about the partnership and what it can deliver for clients.

“We are looking forward to realising the synergies from this partnership. A relentless focus on simplified digital compliance aides in a cyber-driven world enables iOCO to take solutions like ours and help clients keep technology running securely and smoothly, protecting sensitive company and client data, while keeping costs under control. Together we can navigate through every unique data and technology landscape, using powerful solutions to deliver benefits for clients in a simplified and intuitive way,” he says.

* Experience-based savings comparing traditional implementation of an Information Security & Privacy Management System (ISMS) and Spotica’s digital ISMS:

  • 80% time saving in implementation of data security and privacy system (PIMS)
  • 50% efficiency on PIMS capex
  • 15% saving on security engineer operational costs
  • 70% saving on process engineer operational costs
  • 90% saving on manual rework
  • 30% efficiency gains against data and tasks duplication
  • 25% improvement in quality

This article was first published by ITWeb on 10 March 2021.