According to McKinsey & Company, “The pandemic has made it harder for companies to maintain security and business continuity.” This is true for a variety of reasons. For one thing, the increase in work-from-home (WFH) arrangements — and the weaker security inherent in those external connections — provides additional attack vectors for cybercriminals to access companies.
Employees aren’t just vulnerable from a technological perspective, either. Fear, anxiety, and stress put them in a position where they are more c level contact list likely to fall for online scams and phishing schemes. This limitation is especially problematic if workers don’t have proper cybersecurity training in the first place, such as understanding what red flags to look for in incoming emails and other communications.
To make matters worse, access to IT teams may be limited as they attempt to keep up with their regular duties as well as address pandemic-related issues and help WFH employees create safe, secure technology setups in their homes. One remedy for this challenge may be to use IT outsourcing services like those offered by BairesDev. But that isn’t the only solution. Here we explore some of the most pressing cybersecurity issues today and review a few suggestions to improve your corporate security.
Additional Attack Vectors
Pre-pandemic, many companies were able to contain the number of ways cybercriminals could intrude on their network within a project communication plan technological “fortress” on their premises, or with a combination of on-premise security and strict “bring your own device” (BYOD) rules. Now, that protection must extend not only to a limited number of employee devices but to additional devices well outside company walls.
Workers may be connecting with personal computers and other pieces of equipment that haven’t been approved for use with company systems. They may also be using insecure residential internet connections or, even worse, public Wi-Fi to connect with company networks. Each new element presents a new inroad, or attack vector, for cybercriminals to use to execute their malicious plans.
Digital Dependency
The pandemic has forced many people to rely more heavily on online services for both work and personal use. The World Economic Forum states, “The Internet has almost instantly become the channel for effective human interaction and the primary way we work, contact and support one another.”
That means an attack on a company’s network qatar data could bring some or all productivity to a halt, while an attack on a widely used platform or on internet infrastructure could cause serious problems for people trying to do anything from order groceries to participate in a video conference. For industries that deliver basic services, such as healthcare, those breaches could prove devastating or even deadly.
The attacks could also disrupt the ability of governments and organizations to disseminate critical information like disaster updates and evacuation orders.