The Importance of Cybersecurity Amid the Outbreak of Coronavirus
Published on : Saturday 28-03-2020
The coronavirus outbreak continues to disrupt the global economy, global health, and political and social systems. This has led businesses around the world to shut down their operations and forced to work from home in some context. However, this heightens the dependency on the digital infrastructure as companies are increasingly using the Internet as a channel for effective human interaction and the primary way to work, contact and support each other. Thus, the outbreak and the reliance on the internet have also led to a significant rise in the number of malicious software that impacts cybersecurity.
Enterprises in the current scenario are rushing to keep their businesses working, which is creating a significant risk that security will not be properly thought through. So, keep running a business under any circumstance, companies should ask themselves – is the technology and infrastructure deployed secured against bad actors, outside and inside the organization? And do all company employees, partners and third parties have clear instructions and guidance on how to securely conduct their work? If the right level of cybersecurity tools and measures are in place, a business will be well placed to ward off security threats.
Even, some hackers are now acting malicious activity in the name of Coronavirus. Thus to deal with this, an international group of 400 volunteers that have expertise in cybersecurity, according to Reuters, have come up with solutions that would fight against hacking being done in this circumstance. The group involves professionals from over 40 countries. It also has people from top-notch technology companies like Microsoft and Amazon. The group is designed to tackle cyber threats, called the COVID-19 CTI League.
The VP at security company Okta Inc and head of security at hacking conference Def Con, Marc Rogers said that the group’s main priority would be to combat hacks against medical facilities along with other responders to the pandemic who are on the frontline. This will particularly be important to stop hacking of health organizations, the report noted. Also, maintaining the security of communication network and service is very significant, especially for those who are working from home, he said.
The Promise of Intelligent Cybersecurity
The advent of digital technologies obviously brings a wide range of benefits to enterprises, but on the other hand, they also draw several drawbacks and one of them is cybersecurity risks. In the last few years, there are hundreds of thousands of cases reported in the context of identity theft, loss of money, and data breaches. Cyber attacks in nature are very invasive and no one, be it individual, business, or government entities, are escaped from it.
In the time of coronavirus outbreak, many private and public bodies are transmitting information using digital platforms. The UK, for instance, has made digital the default mode of communication, instructing and informing citizens to use official websites for updates to thwart flooding phone-based information services that can be fake.
Moreover, a cyberattack, in the current unprecedented environment, that takes away organizations or individuals access to their devices, data or the internet could be devastating and even severe. This could not only cause organizations network failure but also cause widespread infrastructure breakdowns that take entire communities or cities offline, unfortunately obstructing healthcare providers, public systems and networks.
In summary, I believe businesses and governments alike need to adopt a better cybersecurity approach. Technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning can be effective as they harmonize the deficiency of human resources and save costs in cybersecurity. Today, AI is no longer just a buzzword as it is extensively leveraged in industries of all kinds. In the cybersecurity context, machine learning algorithms allow computers to envisage threats and detect any anomalies with a lot more accuracy than any human can. So, the volume of cyber threats people have to deal with daily is more difficult but with technologies, this can be done easily, especially with AI.