The country was placed 68 out of 110 in the report.
Cybersecurity has long been lacking in South Africa after various cyberattacks not just on private companies, but also on the government that has caused havoc over recent years.
Now, a global survey has found that other African countries like Nigeria, Zambia and Kenya all have better cybersecurity protocols in place than South Africa.
The 2021 Digital Quality of Life Index ranked SA 68 out of 110 countries overall. In particular, it cited that the country performed poorly when it came to electronic security, and its subset, cybersecurity.
South Africa did manage to outrank destinations like Morocco, Mali, Senegal, Angola, Tanzania, Namibia, Egypt, and Cameroon.
Overall, SA came in at 85 for electronic security and 95 for cybersecurity. By comparison, Nigeria – the highest-ranked African country on security – ranked 46 on electronic security and 48 for cybersecurity.
There have been many high-profile cyber heists in South Africa recently. A hack of debt collector Debt-IN systems led to the employer and salary date, alongside ID number and contact details of 1.4 million South Africans been made available online.
Even the Department of Justice was recently a victim of online attacks which interrupted maintenance payments desperately needed by many citizens.
According to the antivirus developer, Kaspersky, South Africa faced about 32 million malware attacks by August 2021, which is one of the highest attack rates in the world.
“This indicates that cybercriminals and hackers continue to focus on Africa, where controls are known to be weak,” noted Liquid Intelligent Technologies in its The evolving Cyber Security threat in Africa report.