How Cyber Attacks Pose a Greater Threat After Pandemic

The opening lines of Charles Dickens’s classic novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ are best suited to describe the situation of cyber security in the post-COVID world: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Coronavirus pandemic created a more connected world than we were living in two years ago. Indeed, it is the worst time when you can be a victim of a cyber attack. However, it is also the best time to upgrade the levels of data protection because this pandemic has initiated new debates and introspection relating to the threats of cyber-attacks.

Changes in the Work Culture

As discussed above, the post-COVID world is better connected. It is known that we were already moving towards this point but gradually. This pandemic put a foot on the accelerator, and we ended up achieving this level of connectivity way before it was expected. When physical work shut down, it became necessary for businesses, workers and service providers to get onboard the internet. Almost all the operations were carried out remotely, and a new culture of ‘work from home’ emerged.

However, cyber attackers were in for a treat in this better-connected world. The attackers exploited both the human and technological vulnerabilities to pose a more significant threat to cyber security. In fact, according to Deloitte, more than half a million people were exposed to cyber breaches (like phishing, a direct attack on organisations, fraudulent websites, etc.) between April 2020 and May 2020. It would not be surprising to see that these numbers increased manifold in the later months.

The Emerging Threat

Cyber attacks are generally grouped into two categorisations:

● Social Engineering- Here the attackers try to find a way around the existing procedures and take advantage of an individual’s lack of social or technological awareness. These can only be corrected with proper knowledge through which social and technological understanding can be developed.

● Logical Engineering- This is a process where the attackers target the vulnerable points in a technological system or leverage any obsolete software or misconfiguration.

However, both can be nipped in the bud using specific data protection technologies like API securities and predictive technologies.

Cyber Security Challenges with Remote Working

While most companies provide virtual private network (VPN) access to their employees when working in a physical workspace, those working from home do not have any such arrangement. Instead, these employees connect their devices with shared wireless networks, broadband networks or mobile hotspots. In addition, these wireless home networks have rudimentary security for encryption of traffic.

Earlier, the corporate user was governed by the IT team in the workplace, but now the user accesses his personal data, emails, and transacts from the same system. As a result, it makes them a COVID specific theme phishing attack target.

As a result, personal and organisational data always remain at risk if one does not subscribe to any particular cyber security software and tools. A malicious code can extract valuable company credentials and compromise the data security of the entire organisation and its employees.

According to newspaper reports, at least ten COVID work from home-specific theme phishing campaign rounds on the internet. It has been reported that the more complex of these target systems and network administrators working remotely. These attacks are more dangerous and scour deeper information and data from the organisation. In addition, some of these attacks are specifically for the research and development team members and are linked with IP thefts and leakages.

Safeguarding Against the Threats and Breaches

However, there is also a brighter side for the cyber security sector during the pandemic. Many security initiatives that were stalled started again during this period. Cyber security technology is making new strides during this post-COVID world. In the wake of these COVID themed attacks, it is crucial for corporate and home users to have predictive technology that can prevent cyber attacks, DDoS, ransomware, phishing attacks, or malware attacks. In addition, it would be beneficial to incorporate API securities to detect fraudulent websites and avoid accessing them.

In Conclusion

To sum it up, this post-COVID world has posed more significant threats for cyber security. Attackers are trying to exploit the vulnerabilities of systems and human errors. However, it has also opened new avenues for developing new initiatives to develop technologies that can counter these threats.

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