Cybersecurity: Bitcrack aims to be at the heart of the Mauritian IT hub

It has been eight months since Bitcrack Cyber Security, a South African firm, has established in Mauritius following a partnership with ABAX. Its objective: to strengthen the African agenda in the technological field.

Founded in 2012, Bitcrack Cyber Security is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. Eight months ago, it became established locally through a partnership with ABAX, an international provider of integrated advisory, corporate and business services for private equity funds, multinational corporations, entrepreneurs and high-net-worth individuals doing business in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Before it had recourse to the services of Bitcrack, ABAX noticed an increase in the number of cyberattacks in the financial sector and other sectors of the Mauritian economy such as tourism. “ABAX used our services to ensure that its information technology infrastructure was free from danger or damage. Following an analysis of Bitcrack, a report was submitted to the management company and it revealed a few vulnerabilities,” Lloyd Kumbemba, Chief Executive Officer of Bitcrack, says. “We helped them secure all their data.” This is how the partnership began.

The cybersecurity solutions offered by Bitcrack aim to ensure that informations kept and shared within an organization or with its customers wherever they are in the world are being protected from hackers. “This is crucial as information is of vital importance to companies.” Lloyd Kumbemba explains that Bitcrack offers different types of solutions including information security, threat intelligence, penetration testing, vulnerability assessments and ethical hacking. The latter involves imitating a hacker in order to find weaknesses in the security system of a company, “so that we can fix them.” Bitcrack also offers training which touches all the staff of companies, from the CEO to the operatives.

Cybersecurity has become paramount at the local level since Mauritius provides incentives to foreign businesses so that they may come and establish themselves here. In that context, the investment climate has to inspire confidence. Besides, Mauritius is considered as an IT hub in the African region. In fact, the island shelters quite a number of multinational IT companies such as Microsoft and IBM. Now, Bitcrack wants to be at the heart of this hub. “We believe our contribution will also strengthen the African agenda to develop technology,” Bitcrack’s CEO goes on to say. According to Lloyd Kumbemba, the United States, which play a leading role in the IT field, have about 300,000 cybersecurity experts. “The demand is huge and Africa is considered to be the rising continent from an economic point of view. We want to be part of this. Furthermore, universities are not responding sufficiently to this demand. It is an opportunity for us.”

Lloyd Kumbemba reveals that Bitcrack wants to have a reasonable market share in Mauritius and partner with a number of customers. The South African firm also intends to create jobs locally as the island needs to build up a cybersecurity organization. Does this mean that the data are not fully secured at present in Mauritius? For the CEO, the island is not less secure than any other country in the world but these last years, the focus on Mauritius has increased, which in turn raises the risk of information and data being robbed from the web. “The role of Mauritius and its way of moving as an important player are changing its economic environment. Industries are growing but so is the risk of being hacked on the Internet. Indeed, the more you are connected to the world, the more you are vulnerable to attacks from hackers.”

Finally, when asked whether Bitcrack projects to use Mauritius as a springboard to reach other markets in the Indian Ocean region, Lloyd Kumbemba answers cautiously that the cybersecurity company is still young so that their main objective for the time being is to stabilize the growth of their business in Mauritius, South Africa and countries of the Southern African Development Community. However, the CEO does not deny that they have their eye on the American, British and Greek markets.