The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted a Work from Home scenario for millions of businesses worldwide. Barring a few essential services such as medical and food supplies, all other businesses are either closed or trying to cope thru remote work.
Unfortunately, even this global health crisis could not deter cyber criminals from not only carrying on their nefarious designs, but they have rather intensified their attacks on corporate networks and businesses trying to sustain operations remotely.
A remote work initiative of such massive proportions has severely marginalized cyber security experts in crafting and maintaining a robust security posture. Another challenge is that some organizational data is inevitably being decentralized to employees.
The traditional security approach of an employee coming over to the workplace and plugging into the secure corporate network is no more an option. This has exposed entire corporate networks to a host of new threats and vulnerabilities.
As companies had little to no time for evaluating new potential loopholes in cyber security, adequate measures could not be put in place. In some cases, security exceptions had to be created to get the employees up and running again.
The number of hacking attempts just across American corporate networks has more than doubled since the pandemic set foot in the country. Similarly, ransomware attacks have clocked a whopping 150% surge as compared to the months preceding March.
Virtual Private Networks (VPN) were considered a fairly robust mechanism for accessing corporate networks securely. However, that is not the case anymore as some VPN providers have also been subjected to infiltrations, thus exposing user’s data.
This is partly due to the haste in which VPNs are being commissioned and deployed across organizations. An improperly configured VPN is as akin to having no VPN in place at all. VPN providers on the other hand are also finding it difficult to cope with very high demand.
Lastly, some cyber miscreants are also shamelessly employing Covid-19 awareness messages as bait for unsuspecting and stressed out employees desperately waiting for updates on the pandemic.
The Covid-19 pandemic is yet another stark reminder of how real and omnipresent the menace of cyber attacks is. Even a deadly pandemic of such epic proportions failed to deter the malicious motives of cyber criminals is truly mind boggling.
