A new global Kaspersky Security Services report ‘Anatomy of a Cyber World’ reveals a blind spot in enterprise Security Operations Centers (SOCs): while performance is typically measured by detection and response speed, organisations rarely assess whether they’re detecting the right threats.

Large portions of collected telemetry don’t enter real-time detection pipelines, creating hidden gaps that internal assessments tend to miss – and fuelling demand for independent SOC Consulting to uncover them.

As organisations continue to invest in SOCs, measuring the real performance of these departments remains a challenge. Operational effectiveness depends not only on the volume of collected data, but on how well that data is used for detection.

According to a recent Kaspersky global survey, organisations typically evaluate SOC effectiveness through a limited set of key performance indicators: mean time to respond (MTTR) and detect (MTTD) dominate the picture, while deeper indicators like false positive rates or cost per incident remain secondary.

The real question is not just how fast the SOC responds, but whether it is detecting threats before they escalate.

The findings from the Kaspersky Security Services Global Report tell a consistent story: most SOCs are collecting far more data than they are using for detection.

The mean correlation rule coverage across assessed organisations stands at 43%, meaning that on average, active detection logic covers less than half of all ingested data sources.

The rest sits in the platform, available for retrospective investigation, threat hunting, or compliance purposes, but invisible to real-time detection.

This gap is not always unintentional. Some data is deliberately collected outside the scope of active correlation, serving investigation or regulatory requirements. But in many cases, sources are onboarded without a clear detection plan or with rule development deferred and never completed.

However, this is more typical of mature SOCs: in less mature environments, the data is often collected but never actually used.

There are several reasons for that, including sources onboarded ahead of planned rule development, compliance-driven collection without active correlation requirements, unclear internal ownership of detection logic, and resource constraints deferring engineering work indefinitely.

However, the result is the same either way: significant portions of the environment are effectively unmonitored in real time.

What makes this harder to solve is that the problem tends to grow with the organisation. SOCs managing the highest data volumes cover only around 30% of their sources with active detection logic.

As infrastructure expands, detection engineering capacity rarely scales at the same pace. The sources most consistently left without coverage are network telemetry, databases, and web servers – foundational infrastructure that should be at the core of any detection strategy.

The approach to detection logic itself varies widely. Around 50% of assessed SOCs rely primarily on vendor-provided rule sets, while roughly 40% build their logic from scratch. Vendor-reliant teams frequently face elevated false-positive rates and coverage gaps from insufficient tuning; those dependent on EDR carry blind spots where cross-source correlation is absent.

Meanwhile, a lot of organisations set their SOC’s detection scope at initial design and never revisit it, meaning blind spots accumulate silently as infrastructure evolves.

“Even with defined KPIs in place, assessing SOC effectiveness internally remains difficult due to insider view bias, which is why organisations are turning to external SOC Consulting to evaluate detection logic, analyse event flows and simulate attacks to understand what is actually being caught.

To improve, organisations should build a structured detection engineering process: a repeatable discipline for developing, validating and regularly reviewing detection logic,” comments Roman Nazarov, Head of SOC Consulting at Kaspersky.

To align internal processes and technologies with today’s evolving threat landscape, organisations can explore Kaspersky SOC Consulting, which helps build an in-house SOC from scratch, assess the maturity of an existing one, or enhance specific capabilities such as detection and response procedures.

In 2025, the most common consulting projects were SOC Technical Assessment (23.4%), SOC Framework Development (20%) and both SOC Maturity Assessment and SIEM Quality Assurance (11.7% each), reflecting a growing demand for deeper visibility into SOC performance.

To learn more about SOC detection effectiveness and practical steps to strengthen your security monitoring, read the full report.

The ‘Anatomy of a Cyber World’ is a comprehensive global report drawing on incident statistics from Kaspersky Managed Detection and Response, Kaspersky Incident Response, Kaspersky Compromise Assessment and Kaspersky SOC Consulting, shedding light on the most prevalent attacker tactics, techniques and tools, as well as the characteristics of detected incidents and their distribution across regions and industry sectors.

Bloomberg has released its second annual “25 African Startups to Watch” list, underscoring the growing influence of venture-backed innovation across the continent.

Published thursday, the list highlights companies building solutions in “environments where infrastructure or systems have failed to deliver.”

The featured start-ups build solutions to challenges such as accessing healthcare in Chad, moving goods in Kenya, securing loans in South Africa, and safeguarding borders in Nigeria.

Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya jointly lead with four companies each, reflecting the ongoing strength of Africa’s three most visible start-up ecosystems.

The 25 companies span 13 countries and sectors including healthcare, fintech, security, climate resilience, waste management, and transport.

Nigeria’s four startups are 10mg Health, Remedial Health, Sycamore and Terra Industries, covering areas from healthcare financing and pharmaceutical supply chain integrity to digital lending and defence technology.

South Africa’s contingent includes Omnisient, Amesect, AURA and Jem. Omnisient uses grocery purchase data and AI to extend credit to those outside traditional financial systems.

Kenya’s notable four include Zeraki, a school-data analytics platform partnering with Safaricom to reach secondary students across the country.

According to Bloomberg, a defining theme this year is the source of funding.

Nearly half of the total capital raised by these start-ups came from African investors, marking a shift from previous years when international capital predominantly drove early growth.

International backers such as 8VC, controlled by Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and Google continue to see value in investing in African companies, Bloomberg noted.

The report also highlights that start-ups across the continent almost doubled their debt fundraising in 2025, even as equity financing from venture capital firms declined.

Separately, the Start-up Ecosystem Report 2026 states that Kenya has overtaken Nigeria as Africa’s top startup investment destination, attracting $984 million in 2025.

Jennifer Zabasajja, Bloomberg Television’s chief Africa correspondent and anchor, highlighted the dual significance of the list, the variety of solutions being built and the growing role of African-sourced capital in backing them.

She noted that the list comes at a consequential moment, one shaped by global disruptions, from the conflict in Iran to sweeping cuts in US foreign healthcare assistance, that have made the case for African-owned capital more urgent than ever before.

Nigeria Data Protection Commission has warned that the growing misuse of personal data and digital platforms could undermine Nigeria’s democratic process ahead of the 2027 general elections.

NDPC

The warning was delivered during the 2026 Press Week organised by the FCT Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Abuja.

Speaking at the event, Vincent Olatunji, national commissioner and chief executive officer,  NDPC, who was represented by Itunu Dosekun, head of Media Unit at the commission, said disinformation and unlawful exploitation of personal data posed serious threats to credible elections.

The event had the theme: “2027 Election: Defending Democracy in the Era of Disinformation.”

Dosekun said the struggle for credible elections was no longer confined to polling units, noting that digital platforms had become major channels for manipulated narratives, fake news, propaganda and AI-generated misinformation.

According to him, the rapid growth of social media platforms, messaging applications and data-driven political campaigns has created vulnerabilities capable of influencing voter perception and weakening public trust in democratic institutions.

He warned that the abuse of personal data for political profiling and psychological targeting had become one of the most dangerous threats facing democracies worldwide.

“The misuse of citizens’ personal information carries serious social implications, especially for vulnerable groups who may not fully understand how their data is harvested, processed and weaponised online,” he said.

Dosekun noted that coordinated disinformation campaigns could inflame ethnic tensions, spread fear and discourage civic participation, particularly among young Nigerians.

He described the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, as a critical legal framework aimed at protecting citizens against unlawful data processing and digital exploitation.

According to him, the law gives Nigerians greater control over their personal information while placing obligations on organisations, institutions and political actors to handle data responsibly.

Dosekun also called for stronger collaboration among political parties, media organisations, technology firms, civil society groups and citizens to promote responsible digital behaviour ahead of the elections.

He stressed the role of journalists and media professionals in combating fake news, fact-checking information and safeguarding public discourse.

According to him, protecting personal data should not only be seen as a privacy issue but also as a democratic responsibility necessary for maintaining public confidence, national stability and electoral credibility.

Stakeholders at the event emphasised the need for improved digital literacy, stronger regulation and increased public awareness to prevent the abuse of digital platforms during future elections.