As COVID-19 caused havoc on many industries worldwide in 2020, cybersecurity becomes another issue facing businesses. We are living in an era when cybersecurity trends are part of technological advancement. Now that we are in 2021, our reliance on technology is still on; hence, our network's threat still exists. The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing workers to social distance themselves; thus, they are hyper-connecting through technology. Business operations are currently going on through technological platforms. Some workers are even working remotely but still connect to their businesses through various internet communication channels.
The new norm of remote working has posed a threat to workers through cyber threats, especially for those working remotely. The following are the myriad cyber trends likely to be experienced by various organizations and their remote employees:
Ransomware threats are rising in the form of cyber-extortion. While not new this cybersecurity trend allows attackers to send malware to a company's systems to lock them out and demand ransoms. It is even becoming hard for tracing attackers using cryptocurrency as a payment form. No legal authority controls cryptocurrency. Some of the remote employees have been ignorant, leaving their systems exposed to attackers. As we go through 2021, remote employees and organizations must be extra careful and protect their networks from ransom attacks.
Many organizations are gradually adopting the Internet of Things (IoT) by connecting all their gadgets to the internet. IoT interconnects devices, software, and sensors to all company devices via the internet. Thanks to numerous technologies such as real-time analytics, home, and building automation, control systems, wireless sensor systems, machine learning, and embedded systems, businesses are connecting to the IoT. However, companies will be facing cyber threats and privacy breaches. Companies should guard their networks against malware infiltration into their systems.
As businesses rely on emails as their primary communication channel, they expose themselves to attacks through Business Email Compromise (BEC). Email compromise occurs when attackers send emails appearing to come from legitimate sources, especially suppliers. The attackers use the email to send invoices and request payments through updated email addresses. Professionals, therefore, need to be more vigilant not to be conned by attackers.
Though the advancing technology and pandemic have brought challenges, there is a lot to be learned by business people. Technology will keep on advancing as days go. However, we expect companies to adopt any new advancements to make them profitable and ease business operations.
If you have any burning questions about your cybersecurity measures and want to see how they stack up to the threats of today, we're more than happy to schedule a cyber security audit for FREE. Get in touch with us to learn more
