For over a year, the pandemic has taken the entire world by storm.No area of human activity has remained free from its impact. From China to USA, everyone has been forced to adopt new practices of social distancing, remote working and frequent sanitizing. But few gave weight to the impact of pandemic on cyber security.While governments and organisations were busy grappling with the new situation brought on by the virus, cyber criminals saw an opportunity to make huge profits.
TEMPERATURE RISING:
With the spread of COVID, a sharp rise in phishing attacks was seen. The hackers used the bug, disguised as a COVID application, to infect computers, phones and other devices around the world. Organisations and individuals are constantly misled and trapped into downloading malware without knowing that these are in the guise of COVID application.
REMOTE RISK:
The pandemic has forced everybody to stay at home. Employees work from home and students take lessons at home. In this scenario, VPN has become the key medium to get on the information highway. But the same application that can take the users to places may also cause misconfiguration and expose the computers to risks that can only mean loss of resources, data and reputation.
Some employees may use PCs for performing their routine tasks which again would carry risks for the organisations.
It is, therefore, in the interest of organisations to ensure that the VPN services are safe and reliable.
DELAYED RESPONSE:
The way businesses and individuals work nowadays is vastly different from
the pre-pandemic days. The security teams working to ensure safe and secure systems around the office space are slow to respond because of COVID-19 pandemic. This has entailed difficulty in detection of hackers’ activities. That’s why responding to these threats in time and finding an effective solution has become even more difficult.
It is now the responsibility of organizations to assess and analyse their security mechanisms and make sure that COVID induced threats are promptly detected and effectively taken care of.
RISKY EXPOSURE:
Some countries, where economic conditions are not as good and where internet connection isn’t so freely accessible or economically viable, may force the workers to usepublic facilities for free internet. This practice may expose the information to interception, theft or damage.
Organisations would be well advised to train their employees and restrict them from using systems in controlled environment. Only that equipment should be used that assures sharing of confidential information in a safe and secure manner.
CRIMINAL INFLUX:
The pandemic has devastated the economy all over the world creating unemployment and resultant frightening situations. Many have lost the meansto live decently which has encouraged them to explore opportunities in illicit ways of making money.
Therefore, organisations should carefully formulate proper exit plans and help employees financially and socially so that they remain productive and do not land in the playground of cyber criminals.
BUSINESS UNUSUAL:
The devastating impact of pandemic took everyone by surprise. Even the organisations that had business continuity plans in place could not foresee how the pandemic was going to alter the way they would operate.
There is a need to get back to the drawing board and make plans to enable the organisations to be prepared and ready in the event of an attack. A revised risk assessment and management can ensure that the organisations still operate normally.
LEARNING THE NEW WAY:
The environment at schools, colleges and universities has changed dramatically because of the pandemic. The methods that were a norm in pre-Covid days are no longer applicable. Remote learning is the order of the day. Governments all over the world believe that opening schools would be a grave mistake because it will multiply the risk factor. Closing down the campuses and employing remote learning tools readily comes to the mind.
But remote learning did not prove to be a great success either. The greatest problem is the resistance to change. And that comes not only from students but also from teachers. Most of them are reluctant to adapt to the new methodology. According to a survey, almost 56% teachers of early education are not inclined to teach online. And almost half say they alone will decide what remote online tools they will use to conduct classes remotely.
Besides this, students are fast losing interest in studies. And since examinations can’t be held in proper atmosphere, students get inclined to resort to unfair means. More than 90% of the teachers, according to the survey, believed that online instructions or examinations are more suited to academic dishonesty. Cheating has become easier and rampant.
This survey paints a bleak picture of education in the years to come. But the situation can be improved if cyber security experts put their heart and mind on devising creative and novel ways to ensure honesty and fair play.
Already, there is a realization that mobile phones, tabs or pads are not suitable for reading. They tire the eyes very easily and very quickly. This phenomenon is commonly known as ‘visual fatigue’. Research and persistent work has led to the development of eReaders–devices like Candle, Rocket Book, Kindle and several others. The demand for such devices has steadily increased peaking during the Covid times. The barriers to student engagement during remote teaching sessions are effectively being lowered with the help of these devices.
And there might also be several other avenues of making education more interesting and engrossing instead of a dull and mundane chore it normally is. Professionals working as cyber security experts can play even more active role in mitigating the effects of Covid pandemic on education.
MATTERS OF HEALTH:
Healthcare with the help of digital devices like computers and smartphones was in practice long before the times of Covid. With the surge in pandemic, the practice reached every corner, evolving into a preferred mode of consultation and treatment. Not without reasons. Telemedicine is not just time saving; it is economical too. From routine health procedures, like case assessment, certain types of medical treatments and various therapies,a to serious ailments, telemedicine works just fine. It ensures a range of benefits for patients who seek advice without having the need to visit clinics or hospitals.
• Lowers costs
• Ensures improved access to care
• Provides preventive care
• Ensures great convenience
• Reduces the risk of infection at the doctor’s office.
Healthcare providers also reap in a variety of benefits by practicing telemedicine.
• Reduced overhead expenses
• Additional revenue
• Less exposure to illness and infections
• Patient satisfaction
In spite of a list of benefits for patients and healthcare providers, there are some potential drawbacks that everyone concerned with healthcare should know of. For instance, finding the appropriate platform and employing it for remote consultations can be a challenging task. An inability to physically examine the patients can also pose problems for suggesting the right advice. And there are perpetual delays when a person needs emergency treatment requiring immediate care and laboratory tests.
On top of these, the issue of protecting data is of paramount importance. Using unsafe network or connecting via unencrypted channel may expose the patient as well as the healthcare provider to hackers’ designs.
Hackers usually gain access to medical reports, lab tests, prescriptions and patients’ personal data to make money. Thisis where strong cyber security skills come into the picture. A thorough professional can scuttle the designs and plans of hackers to make sure patients and healthcare providers remain safe from stress.
VIRAL AFFAIR:
The pandemic sent shockwaves all over the globe by affecting the economy. As a result, experts feared an impending recession. Organisations soon came to the erroneous conclusion that downsizing is the only solution to the strained economic situation. This hasty decision further worsened the risk factors because of the escalating activity of cyber attackers.
The right approach is to prioritize cyber security and update business continuity plans. Giving less importance to cyber security issues by not investing would allow cyber attackers to have field days. They will continue to do their job without any hindrance leaving at least 60% businesses with no choice but to put their shutters down.
Most people agree that COVID-19 is here to stay. The only available course for the world is to learn to live with it. Just as people have adopted new demands of social distancing and personal hygiene, organisations too must alter the ways of conducting their daily activities. With the increase in hackers’ activities post Covid days, it has become all the more important to invest in human resources to defend against such attacks. The bottom line is to rethink and redefine
the strategy.