Rapid technological developments and growing dependence on social media and other modern day information technology platforms has also raised cybercrime and related risks for Zimbabwean organisations, a consultancy company said.

Digital security solutions company, Gemalto, said in recently released findings that there were 888 million data breaches in the first half of this year, a 10% increase on last year's breaches worldwide.

Dr Whisper Rukanda, an executive at Mornipac Consultants, said this week that cybercrime "continues to challenge the industry and financial infrastructure".

He adds that that there is growing need to "manage, minimise and defeat perpetrators" through expert training and regulation of the cyber-industry through responsive laws and awareness of such threats.

"Digital transformation (DT) – the use of technology to radically improve performance or reach of enterprises – is becoming a hot topic for companies across the globe. Executives in all industries are using digital advances such as analytics, mobility, social media and smart embedded devices, and improving their use of traditional technologies such as ERP, to change customer relationships, internal processes, and value propositions," the consultancy company states.

Data handling platforms and other cyber platforms, adds the company, have become critical while the "he safety and replacement for such data is key" for businesses and organisations in Zimbabwe.

Mornipac Consultants will run a cyber risk insurance school in Harare in November.

Additionally, financial institutions in Zimbabwe are increasingly looking up to technology to store data. However, cyber criminals are also on the look-out for this data and are increasingly developing new channels to disrupt systems and are causing wide scale disruption and costs for institutions.