Using the crisis as a cybersecurity opportunity

With a minute’s countdown to a crucial video conference, a remote worker will click on any link that gets them into a meeting on time. Yet that’s the trojan horse criminals are using to breach defences during the coronavirus pandemic. People aren’t the only ones being infected; devices are too, with. It’s no wonder cybersecurity is now topping the business-risk agenda.

“This new work-from-home experience makes everyone vulnerable, especially because,” explains Chris Boyd, lead intelligence analyst at Malwarebytes. The rapid shift to a distributed workforce has been a golden opportunity for cybercriminals, even coining a new phrase – Zoom bombing – where video calls are hacked.

In March alone, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre removed 2,000 online scams related to the pandemic, including 555 malware and 200 phishing sites. “This is why IT teams are rethinking the levels of oversight they have over network activity, especially as it now takes place across so many more disparate devices and locations,” says Carl Leonard, a principal security analyst at Forcepoint.