Coronavirus-themed spam rises by 4,300% since Feb

IBM X-Force has observed a 4,300 per cent increase in coronavirus-themed spam since February.

“While organisations worry about pressing concerns like workforce well-being, the shift to remote work, finance availability and the resiliency of operations and supply chain, cyber criminals are making the best use of the situation considering that the focus on cyber security is being overshadowed. Risks are rising”, said Wendy Whitmore, Vice-President, X-Force Threat Intelligence, IBM Security and Gerald Parham, Security and CIO Research Leader, IBM Institute for Business Value, in a report titled Covid-19 Cyberwar: How to protect your business .

The report recalls the comment by Ben Sasse, a member of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, on cyberattacks as “massive weapons to kick opponents when they are down.”

Exploiting the cloud

The study draws attention to the fact that the rapid shift to remote work has opened new loopholes for cybercriminals to exploit. As people congregate on cloud-based productivity platforms — both for work and personal reasons — the malicious actors launch schemes to exploit the situation, including hacking into and disrupting live meetings.

The potential for continued disruption during this pandemic is high as not only are employees unprepared (lack secure equipment or protocols that enable digital safety) but organisations too, requiring crisis-response leaders to maintain constant vigil and organisational agility.

Counter measures

The report suggests the need for creation of a Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan (CSIRP) to handle security incidents, particularly during pandemics such as the present.

While there is no substitute for real-life, hands-on experience, simulations with drills and repetition would help plug gaps in risk management and mitigation models. The challenge (in the age of Covid-19) is more so because risks are dynamic, emergent and unpredictable, yet interdependent.

When risks become real, teams would need to shift operations from planning and modelling to incident response, disaster recovery and business continuity. Further, the ability to make quick and collaborative decisions often represents the difference between success and failure.

Running simulations that model the most likely threat to mitigate any vulnerability would help tackle the issue, the report notes, before pointing out that despite thorough plans and preparations, crisis — by definition — strikes in unanticipated ways, causing systemic failure. Striking the right balance between governance and ingenuity is therefore crucial in crisis resolution.

Top 5 cybertech trends

Covid 19 has certainly put the world on notice. With some combination of avoidance and prevention, incidence response drills and simulations, security leaders can gain both — confidence in their ability to withstand moments of crisis and conviction to tide over it.

IBM has highlighted, in a nutshell, the top 5 cybertech trends as building end-to-end security protection from device level to the network for remote systems, enhancing digital trust, securing content, securing operations centre and re-prioritising risk assessment.

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