With the recent global events, it is no secret that the surge of attacks on PII based applications has been on the rise. Hackers and cybersecurity professionals have never been more engaged. This beckons a revamping or finetuning of the security systems and landscapes. A traditional and ordinary traffic-based landscape will generally require high budget and a dedicated skilful team. Now, taking into consideration the Information Security Forum’s (ISF) recent “Threat Horizon report, the coming years of 2020 to 2022 look even more scary from the vantage point of security.

Right now, cybercriminals are ridding on the COVID-19 pandemic as a theme for the quasi totality of their attacks. These criminals are taking advantage of the ongoing phobia in the media and the rush to information for survival to run their circus. The ramifications are global and across industries. Users and organizations are being owned and are helpless in front of this wave of cyber missiles. From web to mobile applications, “the way we work now, remotely, connected to our peers via video applications, check-in, chat-applications has led us to reconsider how we can effectively support remote work policies in the future,” wrote Heather Paunet, vice president of Product Management at Untangle in an email comment.

Security teams are overworked. Just to support remote working environment, they need to keep a tab on each user connected through VPNs and educate and monitor closely their operations. Each person needs to understand their remote working policies and given that there are now more devices connected that require protection without the ability to control everything. It entails ensuring that routers are updated and WiFi connections are password-protected. Under different circumstances, this could have been nothing short but cyber paranoia, however it is utterly justified given the digital and social context.

Altogether, the cybersecurity teams have had to combat phishing and identity attacks. The volume of COVID-19-based phishing attacks is horrendous, targeting every possible sector and every possible country. Malware and hacking are rampant as well. Attackers are using relatively new malware to attack users during this pandemic. Their numbers and recurrence suggest a wide variety of campaigns. According to some experts, we are looking at a cybercrime gold rush.

Meanwhile, the cyber security market is gaining momentum and recognition with the growth in cyber threats. The big players are introducing technologies capable of delivering top threat intelligence information. Others are extending their virtual presence in cyber security operations. Innovative quests like the move towards autonomous vehicles makes the automotive cyber security market a highly lucrative space. With remote access and control of the car, the threat of hacking and controlling the car is keeping the cyber security experts on heels. Has COVID-19 actually foster the message of security into our daily realities more than all communications and media campaigns combined? The new norm is certainly gravitating towards a more digitalized world. What is a digital world without a digital police or cybersecurity? It is simply a new landscape altogether…