{"id":15838,"date":"2022-10-24T11:09:58","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T09:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/?p=15838"},"modified":"2022-10-24T20:10:05","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T18:10:05","slug":"new-it-head-puts-spotlight-on-cybersecurity-at-stellenbosch-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/2022\/10\/new-it-head-puts-spotlight-on-cybersecurity-at-stellenbosch-university\/","title":{"rendered":"[:en]New IT head puts spotlight on cybersecurity at Stellenbosch University[:]"},"content":{"rendered":"

[:en]<\/p>\n

\"Paper<\/p>\n

About\u00a0six\u00a0years ago, when Dr Denisha Jairam-Owthar was working as Chief Information Officer for the City of Johannesburg, the city was subjected to a massive cyber-attack which brought the organisation to a grinding halt. Hackers got into the city\u2019s network and demanded money. The metro \u2013 the biggest in South Africa – had to switch to disaster recovery mode and all systems had to be shut down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was when I experienced, first hand, the magnitude of a cyber-attack on this scale,\u201d\u00a0Dr Jairam-Owthar said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this sort of attack happens, the whole technical team faces a mammoth, urgent task. You have to look at every single system and find out where the vulnerability was. While you\u2019re doing all this, you must ensure the organisation can continue to operate. This must all happen in parallel. There is no level of tracking or planning on paper that can prepare you for that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of the cyber-attack, Dr Jairam-Owthar had a four-month-old son. But that didn\u2019t stop her from joining her team in working a gruelling 90 hours a week. \u201cMy staff and I brought sleeping bags so that we could sleep at the office, working shifts, sleeping for three or four hours at a time, manning our nerve centre to technically unravel this cyber-attack.\u201d Her baby became sick from not seeing his mum, and the paediatrician asked what was happening at home. She explained that she was dealing with a crisis \u2013 and had no option but to soldier on.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to today \u2013 and, as Stellenbosch University\u2019s Chief Director: Information Technology Division, Dr Jairam-Owthar is always, on high alert for cyber-attacks on the campus. \u201cCybersecurity is one of those things that keeps me awake at night,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In an extensive interview, Dr Jairam-Owthar (39), who took up the position in January this year, was reassuring that SU is in safe hands. But with risks always at play, she stressed that cybersecurity should be \u201ceverybody\u2019s business\u201d on campus.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cCybersecurity is a hot topic, because it is becoming increasingly prevalent. We see cyber-attacks on prominent organisations on a daily basis. They might have all the controls in place, but it just takes that one vulnerability to probe the weakness to come through \u2013 and before you know it, the entire network has been permeated.\u00a0\u00a0It is not a matter of if a cyber-attack is going to happen \u2026 it\u2019s a matter of when,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCIOs have no option but to ensure that their cybersecurity systems are well resourced and resilient. The cost impacts on organisations and on society as a whole can be very difficult to come back from. Every CIO must be ready for when this happens and know how to respond \u2013 on a technical level, and on other levels, like how the institution deals with the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Jairam-Owthar said the Covid-19-driven switch to digital acceleration has contributed hugely to the growth in cybercrime. \u201cSo many people suddenly found themselves working from home and depending on digital platforms. Cyber criminals quickly understood they could exploit this situation. Hackers are also highly aware that, in developing economies, many institutions do not update and upgrade their technology and infrastructure, and that\u2019s where the vulnerability sits. These very intelligent hackers know we are challenged with funding, to keep up with technology. This is why countries in Africa become targets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving to why cybersecurity is so important for SU, she said: \u201cThis is an institution of real excellence in academics and research. We have researchers across many faculties, and there is so much research data in the system. Ethics in research is so critical. You cannot release the data unless you have followed all the processes. It is absolutely vital to ensure that the data,\u00a0network\u00a0and our online systems\u00a0is well secured.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of this, the system contains a great deal of students\u2019 personal information – their exam marks, certificates and their whole student life cycle information. This could all be affected in a cyber-attack. When an attack happens, the reputation of the entire university comes into question, and those who fund research could become sceptical.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to be able to say to my bosses at SU, hand on heart, that I\u2019ve done everything I can to protect all our\u00a0systems, network and information.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Giving strong reassurance that SU is in safe hands,\u00a0\u00a0Dr Jairam-Owthar said cybersecurity was high on her agenda when she joined the university in January. \u201cWith the support of the university\u2019s leadership, we did an assessment of where we stand.\u00a0\u00a0It found that we are well within the industry norm but there\u2019s a lot more to do because, when it comes to cybersecurity, we are faced with a moving target. We cannot be static or complacent about it. So while we are fine in terms of the industry norm, we have to always drive to improve. The most critical challenge for CIOs is to keep up with this moving target of cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have our controls in place as a university, but \u2026\u00a0even if we put in\u00a0excellent controls; someone in Amsterdam\u00a0for example\u00a0can find a vulnerability. We have to be on the pulse, staying ahead of the target \u2013 because it is moving all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Jairam-Owthar said there is also the issue of balancing costs. \u201cOur partnerships with our vendors, such as Microsoft, become critical. We have to consistently ensure our vendors deliver value. The skill lies in balancing shrinking budgets with moving targets and higher expectations of technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she was at the City of Johannesburg, Dr Jairam-Owthar played a key role in the institution\u2019s\u00a0IT Digital Transformation. Passionate about education, she believes her role at SU is to enable education through technology at SU, because IT is a \u2018critical enabler\u2019 in the transformation of education\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact of what we do is to enable students and staff to be educated. That is the part that speaks to me as a person. Education holds a place in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Jairam-Owthar said the university recently did an analysis using the National Information Security Technology (NIST) cybersecurity framework.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NIST is a tool which does a\u00a0full analysis of the entire IT environment and where the weaknesses lie, and how to prioritise\u00a0to close\u00a0the gap. That report has been done, and we are engaging on it in terms of priority and the budget to start implementing it to strengthen our controls and security,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Turning back to the incident at the City of Johannesburg, Dr Jairam-Owthar said it was \u201clike walking through fire”.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like having an intruder in your home, and you are standing in the house and you don\u2019t know which door the intruder came in. I never want anyone to go through that again. I wouldn\u2019t wish it on anyone. We need to be well prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what her main message to SU students and staff is when it comes to cybersecurity, she said:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy main message is that cybersecurity is everyone\u2019s responsibility, not just that of the IT Division. Everyone on campus – staff and students \u2013 need to play their role. To stress the importance of this, we will soon launch our cybersecurity training aimed at strengthening our human firewall which is the staff and students. Everyone on the campus, must do their bit to strengthen this human firewall.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cSU has such excellence in academia and research. Let\u2019s work together to find the gaps and strengthen the systems. It\u2019s the simple things like don\u2019t share your passwords, make sure you authenticate when you get on the network, don\u2019t go to sites that look odd; being able identify a phishing email. Check with us if you are not sure. If you get an email that doesn\u2019t sound right, talk to us and we will guide you. Most cyber-attacks come through the human firewall. We cannot work in silos for cybersecurity either. We need a holistic approach for SU for cybersecurity. Lastly, make sure you do the training, it will empower you on what to look out for.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Dr Jairam-Owthar looks at her son, now a healthy, happy hi-tech six-year-old, she sees a boy who \u201chandles a phone, an Ipad and a computer all at once\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is for this generation that we need to bring the university into the digital fourth industrial revolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say to my IT staff that; our primary stakeholders are the 33 000 students and the 3500 staff of this university. I want to know what our primary stakeholders look for in technology so we can meet their demands in a safe and secure way, where we are also implementing a key principle of \u2018security by design\u2019 on any technologies we implement\u201d.<\/p>\n

Image credit: Formatoriginalphotos<\/em><\/p>\n

[:]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[:en] About\u00a0six\u00a0years ago, when Dr Denisha Jairam-Owthar was working as Chief Information Officer for the City of Johannesburg, the city was subjected to a massive cyber-attack which brought the organisation to a grinding halt. Hackers got into the city\u2019s network and demanded money. The metro \u2013 the biggest in South Africa – had to switch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11479,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3256,29187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-news","category-security-2"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-30 10:21:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15838"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16042,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15838\/revisions\/16042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}