Artificial intelligence is simultaneously powering sophisticated cyberattacks and the defenses against them, creating an escalating security challenge for organizations across sectors including education, healthcare and finance, Huawei South Africa executives warned this week.
Speaking at the Huawei South Africa IP Club 2026 event in Johannesburg, Kui Zheng, CEO of Huawei Enterprise South Africa, said AI is transforming industries at pace but introducing new risks in the process. “The technology enables cyber criminals to attack faster and with more sophistication,” Zheng said, adding that traditional security practices and solutions can no longer guard against these threats.
Yanjun Yu, senior principal architect at Anshi Lab, Edison Research Centre, Huawei Canada Research Institute, described agentic AI as the most significant disruption in cybersecurity to date. “It is a double-edged sword. The technology is used to launch autonomous attacks for criminal gain, but is also used for autonomous defence for organisational protection,” he said. “Identity is the new perimeter.”
Yu said the overall objective of deploying AI security technology is to make attacks too costly and too risky for threat actors, pushing them to target less-protected organizations instead.
He also flagged quantum computing as an emerging threat, warning of a strategy he described as “harvest now, decrypt later” — in which attackers steal encrypted data today and hold it until quantum computing power is sufficient to break the encryption. “By 2030, the quantum threat will be very real,” Yu said, cautioning that organizations underestimate the pace of quantum computing’s maturation. “But there is opportunity within this crisis, and organisations can strengthen their resilience by embracing agility and finding trustworthy partners.”
Mpolokeng Marakalla, chief technology officer for enterprise business commercial market and distribution at Huawei South Africa, said the company works with customers across government, healthcare, retail, education, production, hospitality and finance. He said Huawei’s approach is to first identify a client’s business requirements and challenges before recommending solutions.
Huawei highlighted its Xinghe AI SASE — secure access service edge — solution as a key offering for organizations in vertical markets seeking to strengthen network security as the foundation of digital operations. The company also pointed to campus networks entering the Wi-Fi 7 era and surging data center construction as key business opportunities linked to digital transformation.
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