How cyber-security attacks have increased with the COVID-19 pandemic

8 October 2021

The era of the COVID-19 pandemic will now go down in history as one of the most uniquely unruly times, but not only for the outbreak of the deadly virus. The virtual world was too, altered, as the Internet became a lifeline for many businesses and employees alike.

The year 2020 is going to be remembered as the start of the Coronavirus, however, what many do not realize, is that the virtual world was equally as plagued. Cyberspace become what many rely on to continue daily tasks and keep businesses running. It enabled 80% of the economy to stay considerably unaffected by the threatening pandemic. Excluding some industries that completely shattered during the spread of the virus, for example, a large proportion of the hospitality industry, the Internet acted as a lifesaver for people around the world.

Nonetheless, with the rapid increase in Internet activity came an exponential increase in malicious cyber-attacks, making what is referred to as the ‘cyber pandemic. Therefore, the worldwide shift onto the virtual world enabled a huge reception for cyber-threats.

The Al-Kuwaiti news reported that the UAE, for example, experienced a 250% increase in cyber-attacks in 2020 alone. They stated that this was because organizations had no choice but to reconsider how they worked and performed operations, and cyber-attackers took advantage of the increased digital implementations. Additionally, frustrations grew as the forms in which they came in became increasingly unpredictable too. This confused workers across the field of security on how to react and act quickly to this unprecedented change in the environment.

The type of attacks differed too. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 450 members of their employees’ passwords and emails were leaked in just one week. Since then, WHO has migrated onto a more secure authentication system to protect their workers. Experts in the digital world state that throughout 2020, people around the world were inadvertently trusting and surfing the web, using their sensitive personal and biometric data, that was so easily accessible to cybercriminals. Due to this online pandemic, technology and services are now shifting their priorities to support the current, urgent need for business continuity, remote working, and planning for the transition of the next ‘normal’ in the online world.

At Technology Exchange, we are here to help you migrate your business to safe and effective cyberspace tailored to you, using industry-leading technologies that will protect your staff and corporate data at all costs. Contact us today, to begin planning the implantation of a new and improved cyber security program for your company.

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