During the COVID-19 pandemic, the time we spent on our screens has increased drastically. Everything became remote and most of our human interaction consisted of our online contact. Instead of being able to speak with our colleagues, most of our face-to-face conversations turned to emails and Zoom calls. People who started a position while working from home may not even be able to recognize their colleagues if their cameras were not on during the virtual meetings. Working from home became the new normal, but is this transition safe? Will the threat to our cybersecurity be greater as we spend more time and share more online?
The need for keeping our data safe online has become increasingly important during the pandemic, as we spend more time interacting online, sharing more information, and working from home. Remote working has had an impact on the average cost of a data breach already, increasing it by $137,000. Employees working on private home networks rather than secure company ones are left more vulnerable. The pandemic has also limited the number of activities we can enjoy outside of our houses and provided us with more spare time. For hackers, this time was not wasted as pandemic related fraud reports, in the US, have cost around $114.4 million by mid-August 2020. Even when it comes to Zoom, our data has not been safe. In April, more than 500,000 users have been victims of a breach and the accounts were sold on the dark web. It is increasingly important for people to be aware of online threats, and for companies to ensure their cybersecurity strategies sufficiently protect our data, both as consumers and employees.
It has become increasingly attractive for cyber-criminals to attack as the value of data increases and we become more vulnerable. Individuals are not the only ones at risk, companies and other institutions have also felt the increase in cyber-crime. The laboratory at the University of California had their system frozen and ended up having to pay 116.4 bitcoins ($1.14m) to the hackers. The system was worth the money to the laboratory, since it had contained research relating to the search for a Covid-19 cure.
As more companies find ways to monetize data, there will be more money and value for cybercriminals to extort. There are many ways to protect ourselves such as checking our emails for phishing, using an anti-virus, using a VPN, strong passwords, two-factor verification, etc. However, even if we take the necessary steps to protect ourselves, we may still become victims. Facebook is constantly involved in data breaches and third-party misusage of users’ information. In 2019, 267 million Facebook user accounts were compromised with phone numbers and names obtained, then offered for sale on the dark web. Do you trust companies with protecting our data? I believe cybercrime will become an increasingly important issue as we transition to hybrid ways of working in the post-pandemic life (hopefully). Are you concerned about cybercrime and the safety of your data?
Sources:
https://www.pandasecurity.com/mediacenter/news/covid-cybersecurity-statistics/
https://www.ibm.com/security/data-breach
https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/how-to-think-about-cybersecurity-era-covid-19
https://www.ft.com/content/935a9004-0aa5-47a2-897a-2fe173116cc9
Hi Kacper!
This is a fairly interesting post for me since I also write a piece about the balance between data monetization and data security for commercial organizations. I can tell that people under various cultural backgrounds may differ a lot in concerns for privacy and data security.
In the area I live, I continuously received spam calls, emails and messages during the last few years, but things go better when new national rules are launched recently to eliminate spam calls and messages. Considering the spam emails, most of them are sent from overseas, probably from United States, talking about blockchain coins.
Nonetheless, my concerns for data security is not about cybercrime, but about political reasons. As you may know, Edward Snowden leaked the high-classified information about National Security Agency (NSA), telling the United States government’s global surveiliance programs with cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments. Individuals might think the programs are only related to privacy of high-level governors, but the truth is most of the technology and social media companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Apple, YouTube and Skype, have signed agreements with American government to share their users’ personal information.
Therefore, I believe that there is no real data security in the digital world since your data is either captured by hackers or by governments for unknown purposes. You never know.
Hi Casper!
Great article, it is indeed true that as we become more digital we also become more and more vulnerable to data breaches and hacking. It is scary to think that your data is being sold somewhere on the dark web without your knowledge. As we use home networks its important to make sure proper protection is in place as well, many people I know are not even using simple protection tools such as anti-viruses or passwords such as 1234567. With this digital shift comes the responsibility and need as well to properly educate the people on safeguarding their data, it is going to be interesting to see what developments happen in order to make that more feasible for different segments of the population.
Many times, it’s interesting to also take in mind the concept of social engineering (also known as social hacking), where people are able to access restricted information through manipulation. So regardless of the security walls we set up we must also make sure to understand what we are exactly safeguarding, to who it can be important, who can access it, and how to make sure no outside parties have access to it.
I left you this link on social engineering that I find extremely interesting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWVN3Rq4gzw
Hey Kacper,
Very interesting points you raise and I do really like the topic.
I believe that there should be more of a regulatory system around the protection of personal data that has to come from local governments. Companies enforced by governments should really ensure that personal data is kept safe. I do not trust companies enough to store our personal as the example of failures that you mentioned are already proof that companies cannot keep our data in a secure and safe way. Personally, this has already happened to me with an insurance organisation that I trusted. I was very annoyed by the fact that personal data of me is currently floating around the web due to poor data security practices. To come back at your question, I am concerned about data security and I hope that there will be more transparency regarding this in the very near future.
Cheers and thanks for the discussion opportunity,
Thibault