Managing the impact of COVID-19 on cyber security

March 2020

The COVID-19 outbreak has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, causing huge impact on people’s lives, families and communities. This has had an immediate effect on organisations, changing the ways employees work and bringing with it new cyber risks.

As the international response continues to develop, we know that organisations are facing potentially significant challenges to which they need to respond rapidly. Many organisations and employees are needing to rethink ways of working in light of considerable operational and financial challenges. Without appropriate considerations, this could fundamentally increase the risk of cyber security attacks.

We are seeing both the likelihood and impact of cyber attacks increasing and cyber security good practices may fall by the wayside as organisations become more technology dependent than ever. We are also beginning to see the nature of the threat changing, as attackers exploit uncertainty, unprecedented situations, and rapid IT and organisational change.