How The Pandemic Has Increased The Need for Cybersecurity
The first known cyberattack hit in 1988, when what became known as the Morris Worm installed itself on a computer every one out of seven times, even if the computer claimed it already had the program. With each installation, the infected computers would become further debilitated until they finally crashed. The worm damaged approximately 6,000 computers, which represented 10% of the entire internet at the time, and we have never looked back.
Over the ensuing three decades, computing and connectivity would become increasingly ubiquitous as more of how we work, play, and live becomes digital, and the combination of chips and sensors have become the fabric of our lives.
The dark side of this increasingly digital lifestyle is the voluminous growth in the number of attack vectors by cybercriminals and other bad actors. While driven primarily by financial motives, one of the more lucrative areas for cybercriminals today is data theft. Early in 2020, the Department of Homeland Security warned of an increase in cyber threats due to heightened tensions with Iran. Later in 2020, a little thing known as the coronavirus accelerated the adoption of digital technologies and solutions, leaving us and our data increasingly vulnerable as companies were forced to go virtual nearly overnight.
