The Pan South African Language Board, in collaboration with Focal Point, announced this week that the South African word of the year is – you guessed it – load shedding. This comes as no surprise for a country that has been plagued by the dreaded rolling blackouts throughout 2022, even reaching level six.

According to Carlo Bolzonello, South Africa country lead for Trellix, a global leading cyber security infrastructure and intelligence organisation, one thing companies in South Africa can rely on is the continuation of their cyber security defences during blackouts. “Power outages can, in some cases, even prove to be beneficial, as when systems are offline, hackers are not able to use their cloud-based methodologies to gain access to your business network.” Bolzonello goes on to explain that when power shortages happen, businesses targeted by cyber-attacks have, in some circumstances, taken advantage of the opportunity to restore systems using their offline servers, and avoid paying any ransoms.

He adds that the majority of software providers have more than enough backup capacity to keep systems running through even extended power outages and are unlikely to be affected at all. “While there are many bleak realities South African businesses face due to load shedding, organisations can at least rest assured that their cyber security systems will remain in place, protecting critical business data and assets,” Bolzonello concludes.