JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, April 23, 2026/APO Group/ –A recent Kaspersky (www.Kaspersky.co.za) survey undertaken in the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region entitled “Cybersecurity in the workplace: Employee knowledge and behaviour”, showed that 39% of professionals consider cybersecurity rules in their company to be excessive or not fully appropriate. In Kenya, this figure was 25% and in South Africa, 23%. Furthermore, the survey highlighted that 7% of respondents in the META region, 4% in Kenya and 10% in South Africa noted that their organisations do not have cybersecurity rules or that they are not aware of them. These results show a disconnect between corporate cybersecurity policies and employee commitment to these rules, underscoring the risks associated with shadow IT and unmanaged device usage in the workplace.

 

Shadow IT is defined as the use of unauthorised software, devices, or services without IT oversight, and it has evolved into a critical business risk. While often driven by employee productivity needs, it creates blind spots for IT departments. The rise of hybrid work environments, increased reliance on cloud-based tools and the spread of AI tools have accelerated this trend. Without robust cybersecurity management and oversight, organisations face heightened exposure to ransomware attacks, data leaks, and regulatory penalties.

 

19% of all survey respondents said there are no policies regarding the use of non-corporate devices in their company. 35% admitted that they can use their own devices to access business information, provided they have some type of cybersecurity protection, even consumer-grade software. On the positive side, 21% of all respondents said they can use their own device, but these must first pass more stringent corporate IT security checks; while 25% indicated that only devices provided by the IT function can be used for work purposes.

 

The situation is significantly better with permissions for employees to install software on corporate devices without IT department’s approval. 50% of all survey participants reported that only IT specialists in their company are allowed to install software, while in 31% of organisations only top management or designated users can do so. 11% of employees can install software that is approved by the IT team. However, 8% of respondents said that all users can install any software they need without IT agreement in their organisation.

 

At the same time 21% of professionals surveyed in the META region, 29% in Kenya and 17% in South Africa acknowledged that within the past year they installed software on their work devices without IT supervision. That highlights a persistent shadow IT challenge that continues to expose organisations to security vulnerabilities, compliance risks, and data breaches.

 

“Shadow IT is now a mainstream operational risk. When one in five employees installs software without IT oversight, it signals a policy gap. Many organisations already have security policies in place, but employee perception must also be considered. Organisations should move beyond restrictive controls and instead implement intelligent, user-centric cybersecurity strategies that combine strategies that integrate technology with employee awareness and responsible use,” said Toufic Derbass, Managing Director for the META region at Kaspersky.

 

To help organisations strengthen their defences, Kaspersky recommends the following:

• Conduct a Shadow IT audit to identify all unauthorised software, cloud services, and personal devices accessing corporate data.
• Implement robust monitoring and cybersecurity solutions, for example from the Kaspersky Next product line with EDR and XDR tiers, to gain visibility into unsanctioned app usage and device behaviour.
• If employees are allowed to use personal devices, define clear minimum security requirements and enforce them through such solutions as mobile device management (MDM) or endpoint management tools.
• Complement user-friendly cybersecurity policies for employees with trainings that demonstrates real-life risks and ways to avoid them. Solutions such as Kaspersky Automated Security Awareness Platform can help.

 

For employees Kaspersky experts advise:

• Understand your company’s cybersecurity policies. If anything is unclear, ask for clarification.
• Only use applications that have been approved by your IT department and request access to specific IT resources when needed.
• Use only authorised devices for work. If personal devices are allowed, make sure they meet all required security standards and have appropriate cybersecurity solutions installed.
• Store and share work files only through approved platforms.

 

*The survey was conducted by Toluna research agency at the request of Kaspersky in 2025. The study sample included 2800 online interviews with employees and business owners using computers for work in seven countries: Türkiye, South Africa, Kenya, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, April 23, 2026/APO Group/ —By Viv Muthan Pr Eng, Head of Export Sales and Operations.

Digitalisation has brought and continues to bring sweeping advancements in how companies go to market and how customers engage with brands. Agentic AI is now poised to disrupt even these developments, creating a scramble among organisations anxious to invest in the “next big thing” for fear of being left behind. Yet history has shown that the more speed becomes associated with winning, the more companies blur the line between operational effectiveness and strategy, copying the same best practices in pursuit of advantage and compromising the very uniqueness they once stood for.

 

The values companies were founded on often fall away in this race to jump on the bandwagon of the newest technology trend. As digital tools proliferate, strategic differentiation collapses into imitation cycles where organisations appear different in branding but identical in execution. However, beneath the surface of today’s digital revolution is an even more important structural dynamic which is often overlooked: technology accelerates competitive convergence. In hyper‑competitive markets which are characterised by rapid innovation, collapsing entry barriers, and continuous technological shifts, advantages erode quickly. As organisations adopt the same tools, platforms, and automated customer experiences, differentiation becomes increasingly difficult to sustain. Digitalisation enhances efficiency, but it also amplifies sameness.

 

This is the paradox of the modern competitive landscape where technology expands possibilities on the one hand but compresses uniqueness on the other. Many organisations misinterpret this environment as one where speed itself equals strategy. They invest in more automation, more digital tools, and more system integration at more pace, believing that motion is progress and more equals better. Yet these actions, while valuable, remain squarely within the domain of operational effectiveness. Porter (1996) reminds us that strategy is about what you choose to do as a company, what sets of activities support that position (fit) and, possibly most importantly, what you choose not to do. Digital transformation accelerates the impact of these strategic choices. Technologies shape what organisations prioritise and enable certain behaviours while constraining others. Over time, this subtly shifts how companies make sense of themselves, how they coordinate, and how they engage customers. By spending more on getting faster there is potential for elements of the customer journey to fade into the background, particularly the messy and less easy to control human elements.

 

That is where and why service, especially human service, has become even more strategically significant. In a digital ecosystem where technologies diffuse rapidly and imitation cycles shorten, the only dimension of the firm that remains difficult to replicate is its humanity. Platforms can be cloned, algorithms can be trained, and interfaces can be mimicked but human discernment, contextual understanding, empathetic listening, and relational trust cannot be reverse‑engineered at scale.

 

Technology delivers speed.
Humans deliver meaning.

 

This is why RS, despite being a forefront contender in the space of digitally led and data‑driven e-commerce businesses, continues to invest deliberately in people as a core part of its customer experience. RS recognises that digitalisation is about augmenting and enhancing human capability rather replacing it. E‑commerce platforms handle the transactions, the complicated back end that lends itself to automation, but people handle the relationships. Automation reduces friction, but humans resolve complexity. AI identifies patterns, but people interpret significance.

 

Human service anchors the organisational values, stabilises behaviour in moments of uncertainty, and protects the customer’s experience across the system. It is the part of the firm that remains recognisably “itself” even as technology evolves. In this sense, “Service as a Service” is more than satire. It might be seen as a strategic assertion: In a transient, digitally accelerated competitive landscape, humanity becomes the last defensible frontier of differentiation. RS embraces digital transformation as an enabler of a higher quality omni-channel customer journey. In an industrial world where customers often operate under pressure, RS is looking at ways to combine speed, technology and humanity to create value that endures even as the technological environment continues to shift.

 

RS South Africa (https://Africa.RSDelivers.com/) is a trading brand of RS Group plc (LSE: RS1) and a leading provider of industrial product and service solutions.

References
Barney, J. (1991). Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage.
Bharadwaj, A. et al. (2013). Digital Business Strategy.
D’Aveni, R. (1995). Hypercompetition.
McGrath, R. (2013). The End of Competitive Advantage.
Porter, M. (1996). What Is Strategy?