In 2020, Cybersecurity has become more important than ever for businesses all over the world; the COVID-19 pandemic definitely has a huge impact on the overall cybersecurity situation. No one is immune to COVID-19 and cyberattacks alike.
Global lockdowns forced many companies to shift to remote work . Cybercriminals took advantage of vulnerable home networks . Many organizations encountered data breaches at the beginning of the work-from-home shift. For instance:
- 80% of companies reported an increase in cyberattacks in 2020 .
- Most of the malware was received from email ( 94% of cases)
- At the beginning of April 2020, Google reported it was blocking 18 million malware e-mails every day related to COVID-19.
- Between January and April 2020, the attacks on cloud services increased by 630%
Healthcare and financial industries were the most affected, as they deal with huge amounts of personal data . For instance, various research shows that:
- In 2020, 27% of all cyberattacks targeted healthcare and financial sectors
- From the beginning of February to the end of April 2020, attacks against banks rose by 238% (when COVID-19 started spreading).
- Most financial institutions ( 82% ) reported that it is more and more difficult to fight against cybercriminals , as they become more and more sophisticated .
On the flip side, 2020 has definitely been a good year for online retailers . Even though according to surveys, COVID-19 caused big shipping delays for 36% of consumers , the global lockdown made 56% of consumers try out a new retailer during the pandemic period. In addition, of course, this was the biggest holiday season in e-commerce history