Importance of Cybersecurity in the current digital world.

The coronavirus outbreak not only has disrupted the global, economy, global health, and political and social systems, but also has created an enormous challenge for businesses worldwide. To continue their business operations despite the massive shutdown of offices and other facilities, most companies have adopted working from home. But as the dependency on the digital infrastructure heightens among the remote workforce to stay connected to each other and the company’s data, the risk of malicious cyber-attacks increases day by day. 

So, what exactly had led to the explosion of Cyber risks in the current digital world and how can organizations mitigate against the threats? Read on to know more about the importance of cybersecurity in the current digital world and how strategic cybersecurity measures can protect organizations from cyberattacks. 

What has led to the explosion of cyberattacks in recent times?

Cybercrime has increased during these tough times and cyber attackers have successfully breached major entities, including top government agencies like The World Health Organization (WHO) and the US defence agency. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the instances of cybercrime have jumped by as much as 300% since the end of February 2020. A report by Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that the global cost of cybercrime will rise to $6 trillion a year by the end of 2021 and this was estimated before the COVID-19 pandemic took over the world. So, what exactly has led to this explosion of cyber risks. 

The shift in the work environment:

In a span of just a few months, the world has become digitally connected than ever before and organizations that had forever required employees to present in office spaces suddenly changed and requested their employees to work and collaborate among a vast constellation of home offices. This brought in its own set of vulnerabilities. In the pre-pandemic times, where most employees worked from offices with the office laptops, desktops, and LAN (Local Area Network), the digital infrastructure was adequately secured and they had sophisticated technologies that were equipped to protect against cyberattacks that arise from the internet. 

But, working from home means the first point of an employee’s laptop or desktop is typically a broadband network or shared wireless network that would have very basic security for encryption of traffic. Moreover, an employee working from home can access unfiltered internet, personal drives, and emails unlike in the office where the employee was governed by the IT security team. This opens a wide window for cybercriminals to attack and steal both your and your company’s sensitive data. 

Cybercriminals taking advantage of digital dependency:

Cybercriminals today are using this heightened dependency on digital footprint and traffic to their advantage to find vulnerabilities, steal data, or to siphon off money. They are launching Covid-19-themed attacks in the form of phishing emails with malicious attachments that drop malware to disrupt systems or steal sensitive data. Attackers are also creating temporary websites to host malicious code that drops on their digital devices when a user visits their site.

How can organizations mitigate against cyber threats?

As cyber incidents are consistently ranked at the top of business concerns, we cannot stress more about the importance of cybersecurity in the current digital world. Without the right cybersecurity measures, you are not just risking the data you use but also the integrity of your business. So, it is important to invest in your company’s cybersecurity measures. However, threats evolve over time and it is not as simple as finding and eliminating the vulnerabilities and threats that are waiting at any particular moment in time. 

Training your employees

Threats have increased and evolved, so the way you have to address them has to change too. You can start by training and educating your users and employees about cybersecurity and internet safety measures. A guide addressing all the safety measures for all the work from home procedures needs to be a priority. Thus, establishing a culture for security with basic remote working and cybersecurity knowledge is essential for creating awareness of the importance of cybersecurity in the current digital world.

Deploy homeworking cybersecurity measures

Organizations can deploy technologies and solutions that are quick and effective to adopt like cloud solutions. This not only increases protection against cyberattacks but also improves productivity and reduces deployment time. Secure cloud-based solutions for employee collaboration and security enables companies to increase the breadth and depth of security protection rapidly depending on the threats of the moment. Additionally, organizations that use secure remote access can give their remote employees private access to enterprise applications and systems to improve security.

Covid-19 is certainly accelerating the digital transformation thus completely changing the business behaviour. This is why it is important to protect an organization’s entire value chain from the inside out. Global cybersecurity leaders like Intone collaborate with businesses to deliver a focused, risk-based security strategy, operating model, and compliance plan that equips them with the best defence system to help them face this digital future. Thus, with the right tools, resources, and strategies, you can definitely build a safe wall around your organization and employees, and protect them from the rising risk of cyberattacks.