5 Key Cybersecurity Concerns during Covid-19 Pandemic

The sudden attack of Covid-19 has made the whole world come to a standstill. It is impossible to keep the activities of various offices and other organizations postponed for a long time, though everyone stays at home to protect themselves from the epidemic; so corporate organizations have started their services online through remote working. However, the increase of remote work has enhanced the unseen threat in the digital space. Threat actors are trying to deploy cyber-attack using the personal and public Wi-Fi network of the potential victims. So online safety & cybersecurity is now the most important issue for remote workers. Corporations have raised many concerns about the security of official and personal information, confidential information sharing due to remote working. Some key cybersecurity concerns are:

1. Security of remotely used devices:

Employees have to use their personal devices due to remote working. So a huge number of devices have added to the company network. But many of these devices can be affected with malicious codes and have low security. It can result in leakage of sensitive and confidential information or file of work. HiveIO conducted a study that reveals that 85% corporates are in risk of cyber issues for remote working and there can be an increase of 22% business cost for fixing these. IT teams of these corporations are working to fix  the malware of devices.

2. Security of network and communication path:

CISO MAG conducted a study where the security specialists ask the workers about using company vpn for working while 70% replied in positive. Actually, the home and public network can be vulnerable so employees need to use company vpn to securely log in to the company network. Corporate should encourage their employees to use company vpn to prevent the exploitation of clients and user credentials collecting data or man-in-the-middle attacks. IT teams have to deploy secure multisite remote access servers dispersed at various geographic locations.

3. Maintaining cyber hygiene:

During this pandemic almost 46% of global businesses come across at least one cyber incident (according a survey by Barracuda Network). The remote workers have to ensure that their devices are up-to-date, patched, and secured. 2-factor authentication should be applied for all possible ways to ensure security. Maintaining a specialist team of IT experts to maintain cyber hygiene and patch up the devices of employees should be ensured.

4. Cyber risk mitigation:

Among the cyber incidents phishing and scamming is the most watched cyber issues. Recently sending phishing e-mails addressing WHO (World Health Organization) has been the most popular among the hackers and scammers. Third party applications and malicious ads have been added with phishing to cyber breach. CERT-In has published an advisory forbidding the security specialists from clicking the link and attachment sent in the phishing mails to mitigate cyber breaches. IT and security specialists are advised also to monitor the outgoing data packets for preventing any kind of cyber incidents.

5. Amendment of Business Continuity Plans:

Remote working has enhanced the use of video conferencing apps while zoom has reached over millions of users because of some advantages. But this has increased the cyber risks too. Cybersecurity firm Cyble first found that 500,000 zoom accounts on a hacker forum that was sold in dark web. So, the corporates are now bringing amendments to their business continuity plans (BCP) to change their standard operating procedures (SOP) and started using a company-specific channel or MS teams, Google Meet or Skype so they can avoid such risks.

Security of the officials to protect their confidential information and credentials is the most challenging task in this crucial time. So, being aware of cybersecurity and corrections of the cyber policies is a crying need for every organization.