PM — Don’t quit your day job

Happy Monday, wonderful people. We’ve got a slow but steady stream of news trickling in this afternoon as we ease back into post-COP normality.

THE BIG STORY TODAY-

Nafeza rollout to air freight pushed “until economic conditions stabilize:” The rollout of the Advance Customs Information (ACI) customs system to air freight has been pushed for a second time to give importers, customs brokers, shipping agents and overseas companies more time to get used to the system amid volatility in the global economy, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. Use of the ACI for air freight was due to become compulsory on 1 January, having already been pushed back from an original October start date. The ministry will now extend the trial period until local and global conditions are stable, the ministry said.

There’s no single BIG STORY ABROAD leading the conversation in the international press this afternoon:

• The return of Bob Iger as CEO of Walt Disney less than a year after his retirement is making waves in the business press. (Wall Street Journal | Reuters)
• An earthquake in Indonesia has killed more than 50 people and wounded hundreds more. (Reuters | BBC)

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• Renewable power company Lekela Power is looking to invest USD 2 bn in Egypt over the next four years as part of a USD 6 bn plan to quadruple its energy production capacity to 4 GW from a current 1.1 GW.
• The Central Bank of Egypt is going to stop providing funding for subsidized loans and pass the responsibility to the housing, finance and tourism ministries
• A planned roadshow for the Sovereign Fund of Egypt’s pre-IPO fund has been pushed to late December or the beginning of January from November, thanks to COP27.

FOR TOMORROW-

The Fingerprint Summit is taking place tomorrow and Wednesday (22-23 November) at the Nile Ritz Carlton Hotel. Speakers include Finance Minister Mohamed Maait and Planning Minister Hala El Said.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Are you a C-suite executive or investor and want to attend our Enterprise Climate X Forum? Drop us a note on climatexrsvp@enterprisemea.com to signal your interest, letting us know your name, title and where you work.

The event takes place on Tuesday, 6 December 2022 at the Grand Egyptian Museum.

The deadline to apply for the Chicago Booth Executive Program in El Gouna is Sunday, 27 November. The two-week program, which kicks off in March 2023, offers executives from Egyptian public and private sector the skills to help them “become a better leader for your organization and support Egypt’s growth in the years ahead.”

Payment and fintech conference Pafix will be held as part of Cairo ICT 2022 from 27-30 November at the Egypt International Exhibition Centre in New Cairo.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect another sunny day tomorrow with a daytime high of 27°C and a nighttime low of 15°C, according to our favorite weather app.

European countries back down on wearing rainbow armbands at World Cup: The national teams of England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland have scrapped plans to wear rainbow armbands in solidarity with the LGBT community on the field in Qatar, after FIFA threatened sanctions against captains that could include yellow cards. “As national federations, we can’t put our players in a position where they could face sporting sanctions including bookings, so we have asked the captains not to attempt to wear the armbands in FIFA World Cup games,” the seven football associations said in a joint statement. The teams had hoped to wear the “OneLove” armbands to highlight their support for inclusion in football, against the backdrop of the tournament being held in Qatar, where same-sex marriage is illegal, Bloomberg writes.

The move could have long-term consequences for FIFA’s ties with Europe: The Dutch football association said that “together with the other countries involved, we will take a critical look at our relationship with FIFA in the coming period.”

This is the latest in a series of controversies surrounding this year’s World Cup: Host Qatar has been criticized for everything from its human rights record to the treatment of migrant workers in the lead-up to the tournament. European nations have raised concerns about the treatment of LGBT fans in the country, while sponsors were rattled by a last-minute decision to ban alcohol in stadiums, potentially breaching Budweiser’s contract with FIFA.

Change your job to change your life? It might be a little more complicated than that, the Financial Times reports. Talk of the ‘Great Resignation’ is everywhere as more people reportedly quit high-paying positions to pursue creative, passion-driven careers. The general narrative is that the pandemic has inspired a kind of global midlife crisis, pushing people to think about what really matters to them and ditch their jobs in pursuit of a deeper purpose. But quitting work outright doesn’t necessarily mean a brighter future ahead — and takes a serious financial cushion, whether through savings or a high-earning partner, the FT notes.

You don’t like your job — but do you know what you do like? Workers are commonly “dissatisfied with their current role but unsure about an alternative,” Lucy Standing, founder of professional advice nonprofit Brave Starts tells the FT. That means a leap of faith into unemployment may not be the wisest step. Instead, employees should consider building a new career as a hobby or side-hustle in tandem with their current job, or taking a more gradual step into part-time or flexible work.

Employers are missing a trick on recruiting midlife career-switchers: As it becomes more common for people to work in many different jobs and fields over the course of their careers, companies should make it easier for midlife professionals to test out new tracks rather than focusing solely on luring fresh graduates, the FT suggests.

The EGX30 fell 0.6% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.76 bn (32.5% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net buyers. The index is up 4.2% YTD.

In the green: Orascom Construction (+3.5%), Abu Qir Fertilizers (+3.2%) and Telecom Egypt (+2.1%).

In the red: Eastern Company (-7.5%), Rameda Pharma (-3.6%) and CIRA (-3.3%).

How Egyptian companies can up their cybersecurity game: Cyber attacks are higher than ever worldwide, and Egypt is no exception. We’ve seen the likes of shipping giant Maersk — which put the cost of its cyberattack at up to USD 300m, according to the Financial Times — along with regional ride-hailing app Careem, and mass transport app Swvl suffer from cybersecurity attacks. And 2021 has seen over 46 mn cyber threats in Egypt alone, according to Trend Micro’s annual report.

But 2021 was also a tough year on the global level, dubbed the worst year ever for cyberattacks on companies. Corporate networks reported 50% more attacks per week when compared to the previous year, according to data from Check Point Research

The cost of cybercrime globally is predicted to hit USD 10.5 tn by 2025, according to the latest version of the Cisco/Cybersecurity Ventures report. If it were measured as a country, cybercrime would be the world’s third-largest economy after the US and China, points out the chief editor of Cyber Crime magazine.

And it is more likely to keep CEOs up at night than covid. In fact, cyber risks are currently the biggest concern for companies globally in 2022, according to the Allianz Risk Barometer, driven by a surge in ransomware attacks. A majority of CEOs, risk managers and experts in 89 countries stated that the threat of cyber attacks and data breaches worries them more than supply chain disruption, natural disasters or covid.

But cybersecurity is yesterday’s news — what matters most today is cyber resilience. Enterprises should move beyond cybersecurity and focus on their cyber resilience, managing director of IBM spin-off Kyndryl Mahmoud Badawi says. “We need to focus on how to build our immune system to be able to be resilient towards threats which will always be around,” he adds, pointing out that the hacking landscape is constantly evolving, and new security threats arise every day. While staying on top of threats is important, recovering from them is just as vital.

Your company’s cyber resilience strategy should include “anticipating, protecting against, withstanding and recovering,” Badawi notes. It’s important to have the right infrastructure in place, build your company’s defenses, methods and policies, and it’s equally essential to be prepared for what happens after an attack. “It’s not just defending and protecting. It’s living through it and recovering,” Badawi says. There is no end-all solution that could guarantee your company will never be the victim of a cyberattack, he explains; however, there are a few steps that can be taken to help lessen the risks.

So how can you do that? You need to focus on product, process and people, global success manager at cybersecurity and digital risk management company RSA Mohamed El Garf says. You should invest in a strong tech product that fits current market needs, have the right process in place to deal with threats in real-time and manage the product adequately, and make sure you have the right people to build and manage the product and the process.

Let’s break that down: #1- Product: To secure your tech product, make sure that you have an identity security solution, Garf explains. It’s a tool that makes sure users are who they say they are and doing what they are allowed to do. This includes making sure that only authorized users can access sensitive information and that malicious actors can't get access to the data. Think of the two-step verification process in Gmail where you add your phone number to get a code that allows you to log in, or the fingerprint you need to scan in order to make an OTP request in banking apps.

And then ensure the following: Have a security information and event management system to monitor and control the logs of all cyber incidents occurring on your company systems. Get a network detection and response system that constantly monitors your company’s network to find cyber threats or strange behavior and responds to these threats. This system can use its own tools to deal with the issue or be integrated with available cybersecurity products in the market.

If your product deals with online payments, go the extra mile. For businesses with online transactions, a solid ecommerce security system is essential along with adaptive authentication tools, Garf explains. Adaptive authentication creates a profile for each user on your platform that includes that person’s geographical location, used devices and other identification metrics. Each time the user tries to authenticate their identity, the request is assigned a risk score.

#2- Process: There needs to be a cybersecurity strategy document that comprises all possible cyber threat scenarios and how to handle them, based on their level of difficulty and traits. For instance, is the threat internal or external? Is it severe or minor? The cybersecurity strategy and roadmap help the team handle threats as they come in. Cybersecurity companies create this document for their clients, which mostly incentivizes the latter to buy security products, El Garf says.

You also need endpoint security. Endpoints are basically all devices connected to a specific network, such as tablets, laptops and mobile phones. There are endpoint detection and response systems that work on detecting, analyzing, blocking and containing ongoing cyberattacks. This involves the continuous monitoring of devices that are connected to that network. Think of it as an antivirus program on steroids that can protect multiple devices from cyber threats at the same time.

#3- People: When tackling human resources from a cyber resilience perspective, you have to focus on two aspects — building a strong cyber resilience team and raising cyber threat awareness amongst all of your employees.