Tag: ransomware attack

Investors need to consider cyber preparedness in their investment decisions. Today, 100% of companies rely on the internet to operate, compared to the one-in-four 10 years ago, according to a study from Accenture.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) and cyber attacks are on the increase worldwide. Conveyancing firms, their clients, and other organisations effecting many large non-recurring type transactions are particularly vulnerable to BEC fraud.

The lockdown has highlighted the importance of cybersecurity as an integrated business process especially given the normalisation of remote working. While the focus has been on safeguarding employee devices, email security has fallen by the wayside.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a highly volatile and uncertain environment for businesses resulting in a litany of new or heightened risks for directors and officers (D&O) as well as exacerbating the situation in an already strained D&O insurance market.

There is a significant decrease in the sheer number of ransomware attacks due to improved security, better backup strategies and faster data recovery measures. This has meant that the spray and pray approach is no longer effective for ransomware distribution. Although fewer ransoms are being paid, it doesn't mean less risk.

The national lockdown forced a large contingency of the South African workforce to work from home and as it is somewhat of a new notion, it had its fair share of challenges. Yet recent studies have shown the shift to remote working has led to improved productivity for 29% of organisations.

October marks International Cybersecurity Awareness Month which raises awareness around safety in cyber space as well as the need to upskill and treat cybercrime as a priority. Cyber attacks and disruptive events are on the rise, affecting 82% of organisations surveyed in the Technologies Global Data Protection Index 2020 Snapshot. These organisations included both public and private organisations.

Cyber security and privacy risks should be the top priority for any business at present, especially whilst trying to accommodate all staff in their new remote working environments. In the rush to get everybody working from home, security probably wasn’t top of mind and this presents a major threat for many businesses and people working from home for the first time.

Prior to the pandemic we were seeing the usual scams impersonating banks, telcos, and shipping companies but now a portion of them have switched to using the pandemic, the World Health Organisation, the American Centers for Disease Control and various international and local charitable organisations as bait.

When there is a crisis, there are those that will try and take advantage. Unfortunately, cybercriminals aren't guided by the same moral compass as the rest of humanity. In fact, they are using the current COVID-19 pandemic to try and break through defences by using scare tactics and a variety of malicious campaigns including email spam, BEC, malware, ransomware, malicious domains, and sending seemingly helpful emails to spread infected files.