08 Apr Top Cybersecurity Measures amid the Outbreak of COVID-19
As the Covid-19 outbreak threatens to overcharge healthcare system, multinational companies (MNCs) are witnessing a significant increase in cyberattacks demanding for cybersecurity measures. Global companies have seen a sharp rise in cyber-attacks since the spread of coronavirus.
With the spread of pandemic, there is an increasing demand for IT support services and various cybersecurity measures. While the professionals, students and business owners worldwide are asked to work remotely from home to implement social distancing – cyber criminals are taking maximum advantage to target vulnerabilities in the industries impacted by the current crisis.
Even before the virus spread, a 2019 report revealed that the cyber-attacks cost more than $50 billion last year. In the recent data breach in Marriott International, the information of 5.2 million guests has been compromised.
Apart from this, TrueFire, Whisper, T-Mobile, Carnival Cruise Lines, and many reputed companies have been hit by the data breach, resulting in a loss of billions. Besides, as per an online survey, it is estimated that more than 50 million Americans were hit by identity theft.
With the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, people are encouraged to opt for services that they normally would not. While the majority of industries are concerned about the safety of their employees and customers – amid the outbreak of pandemic, cybercriminals are finding their way to spot a chance to make profits.
The upcoming months can be challenging for healthcare, media, government, financial, medical supplies and manufacturing industries. Although we are yet to see the major disruption to these industries from cyberattacks amid the outbreak. Hence, to reduce the probability of a data breach or cyberattack, here are some cybersecurity measures.
1. Awareness is the antidote
The risk of cyberattacks increases as employees are encouraged to work from home. It is known that more than 45% of the cyberattacks are linked to employee behavior. In a simulated phishing attack, more than 70% of the emails are delivered to the recipients, of which 7% of recipients open the emails.
To protect important data, organizations should strengthen SEIM Monitoring and identity access management by enforcing a layer of multi-factor authentication and other cybersecurity measures. Employees should be made aware of the phishing scams related to this season from fraudulent websites; as such attacks can propagate quickly and impact the entire network.
2. Incident response plan
In response to this pandemic situation, organizations should update their contingency plan quickly. The IT security team should assess incident reporting from the ground level, as the damage will depend on situational awareness. Cybersecurity is often seen as a problem by many organizations and therefore, the attackers address this tactically from an IT perspective. Outsourcing the incident response plan will give you confidence that the breach will be dealt with appropriately.
Establish a rapid incident response plan that helps organizations to quickly identify, eradicate and recover from potential attacks. It is crucial to implement and test the disaster recovery plan to ensure resilience in the information system. The incident response plan must be documented, validated and tested by a remote workforce to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks.
3. Implement advanced cyber diagnostic assessment
Advanced cybersecurity diagnostic assessments help organizations to assess IT security and make informed decisions. Organizations must implement advanced tools and techniques to assess cyber threats and take necessary cybersecurity measures. Some of the diagnostics include – penetration testing, email cyberattack assessment, spear-phishing campaign and so on.
A few incidents of cyberattacks have been seen with unsafe links leading to loss of important information. At this moment, it is essential to monitor the baseline behavior in real-time.
Bottom Line
The cybersecurity industry should be more dynamic and responsive than before. Organizations should work with the data security and risk management teams to prevent spear-phishing, ransomware, impersonation attacks and so on. When it comes to data security and privacy issues, we should act in time before the situation goes out of hand.
