The coronavirus pandemic can be considered a catalyst that is trying countries, organisations and individuals to the extreme all around the globe. Many companies have had to resort to survival strategies by axing their auxiliary operations in order to protect their core businesses. To many, this means cutting back on cybersecurity investments and throttling down on projects. Here are some talking points on why D4n6 recommends you do the opposite.

Cybersecurity or Information Security needs to be viewed as an intrinsic part of core operations for a number of reasons. It enables business safety, reliability and trust with increased brand value and reputation. Companies who did not invest in cybersecurity to date, have suffered attacks and data loss while companies with an understanding of cyber importance have deflected such attacks. Cybersecurity is an area of key importance undoubtedly more so as we see the majority of businesses, from retail to education shifting overnight to an online version of themselves to remain relevant during the coronavirus crisis. As we have already seen from the start of the crisis, cybercriminals now exploiting the COVID-19 situation and targeting employees working from home or teleconference services like Zoom.

While we do understand that some businesses in order to survive these unprecedented times look at cyber teams and investments as something worth delaying on, however with online being the main survival platform left for most to continue some semblance of business, we would like to give you some food for thought as to why cybersecurity should go hand in hand with your strategy.

Cybersecurity is needed most now – with a large number of remote workers processing company data from their homes, the cyber risk factors have greatly increased. We can see that cybercriminals are now targeting remote workers and companies offering remote accessibility solutions. Cyber teams worldwide must work around the clock to respond to incidents affecting remote work and find ways to mitigate the problem. From WiFi hacking, to phishing emails and video conference bombing, remote workers and their organisations are being attacked more than ever before.

Increased business risk – In connection with the previous, axing cybersecurity teams means that the company puts itself in a more vulnerable position. Since cybercriminals never sleep and in fact now mobilized their efforts to exploit the crisis, there might be company-affecting situations like breaches or service disruptions which may go undetected. This will ultimately affect the core business processes where cybersecurity cannot triage and eliminate such adversaries in a timely manner. The very least a company wants during this time, is a cyber incident with difficulty to recover such as a case of ransomware.

Loss of investment – Dismantling partially or completely cyber teams would also mean that previous investments in technology or talent will be lost. Remember that the crisis will be over at some point, and those who managed out their cyber function would have to rebuild the teams, which is challenging to do at the best of times. However, maintaining your cyber team in these harsh times would mean that the company investments are not lost and will be substantially easier to resume normal operations after the crisis.

Loss of talent – Thinking of terminating employees or third-party security contractors? Note that, both of those talented people and third parties will have ample amount of work after the crisis is over. They might very well not be available to you anymore, as employees find new jobs in companies that employ them even in difficult times and third parties may have filled up their capacity with other clients in the process.

Difficulty in recovery – in a nutshell, it will be much harder to recover or rebuild the cyber function and return to normal operations if one loses out on being resilient and prepared now.

There is no doubt in that the crisis will be over, and in the grand scheme of things, that day is soon. When businesses resume their normal operations, having cut down the cyber investments would mean a much more challenging time to play catchup. We would also like to emphasize the fact that suffering a cyber incident in these times because of budgetary decisions could actually mean lowering ones defences and risking loss of business in an already trying time.

Do you have any questions on how cybersecurity can support your business during the coronavirus crisis?

Would you like us to assess the risk of remote work within your organization? Contact D4n6 HERE