The Indelible Impact of COVID-19 on Cybersecurity

Half of infosec professionals (50%) revealed that their organisations didn’t have a contingency plan in place, or didn’t know if they did, for a situation like COVID-19 or a similar scenario. This lack of forward planning has come at great risk, as 86% of infosec professionals admitted that attacks in the most common attack vectors were on the rise during this period. Cyberwarfare and IoT as an attack vector were reported to be up by 38%, and APTs and cyberespionage IP theft and social media threats/chatbots by 37% — all of which could be an indication of a bumper year for breaches.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH

The Indelible Impact of COVID 19 on Cybersecurity Study was conducted among 6 724 Security and IT workers in May 2020 across the UK, US, Australia/New Zealand, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Sweden Representing a broad cross section of organisations and industries, from fledgeling SMEs, through to publicly listed 10 000 person enterprises The report, which will form part of the yet to be released 10 in 10 Study, details the pressures faced by IT professionals during the COVID 19 how these pressures are testing the effectiveness of security measures and the changes they will need to make within their organisations as a result.

All audience members utilise and/or have decision making power over data security solutions and software security products. The interviews were conducted online by Sapio Research in May 2019 using an email invitation and an online survey.

“Change is an undeniable threat to cybersecurity, as is being unprepared. The stakes are high in terms of loss of customer loyalty and trust not to mention to the bottom line. “

COVID 19 has however presented infosec professionals with the opportunity to reassess their infrastructure and refocus on what end users/employees really need and want, in terms of cybersecurity support . The 10 in 10 Indelible Impact of COVID 19 on Cybersecurity Study, reveals that unprecedented change does pose risks, but that it also provides an opportunity to reassess strategy. It is also evident that, despite identifying risks, there is still a need for further investigation into what investments need to be made to ensure that corporate data and employees are both safe from bad actors . While it’s a challenge to make changes now, it will shore up business for the future and many more unknown scenarios.”

Liviu Arsene, Global Cybersecurity Researcher at Bitdefender.