October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and South Africans are being urged to take practical steps to stay safe online. Speaking during a Government Communication and Information System webinar held under the global 2025 theme “Secure Our World”, Digify Africa’s Head of Client Services, Omphile Kgwathe-Nkiwane, said online safety is now a matter of everyday security for families, businesses and schools.
To help people navigate digital spaces more safely, Digify Africa has developed a WhatsApp learning bot called Kitso. Once saved to your contacts at 076 593 7181, Kitso can be used as an interactive educator, offering tools and techniques to help parents, guardians and teachers protect themselves and their children from online threats. “In the past, the boogeyman was on the streets but now he is on the internet,” Kgwathe-Nkiwane said, adding that the bot was designed to be easy to use and to make complex cyber-safety concepts understandable and practical.
The webinar also provided clear, actionable advice for the public. Kgwathe-Nkiwane stressed the importance of strong and unique passwords, two-factor authentication, recognising phishing attempts, and avoiding open Wi-Fi for sensitive transactions. She warned that many scams begin with urgent calls, emails or texts asking for banking PINs, one-time passwords or claiming a parcel needs to be collected. “With so much information online, some people find it difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is not and that is why we created the WhatsApp learning bots,” she explained.
Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a global initiative designed to empower individuals and organisations to protect themselves from cybercrime. By providing parents, educators and guardians with easy-to-use tools like Kitso and practical tips, Digify Africa and GCIS hope to shift online behaviour, encourage critical thinking and make South Africans more resilient against digital threats.
–SAnews.gov.za
