Cybersecurity: The case for the defence

With malware, DDoS and RDDoS attacks on the rise, your best option is to plan for the worst

Today’s malware creates consequences reaching far beyond the timespan of a single attack. Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto

There’s a scientific paper dating from the 1960s, written by the mathematician and early computer pioneer John von Neumann, called Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata. It predicts the age of the computer virus, speculating that it will one day be possible for a mechanical organism to self-replicate, infecting and damaging machines in the way a virus particle attacks the human body.

Today we live in those same viral times: while strains of Covid-19 occupy news headlines, ...