Post-Pandemic Cybersecurity Issues Plaguing Modern Digital Business

In the wake of post-COVID pandemonium, many business organizations lost their direction amidst the immense shift to the digital corporate environment and landscape. New times demand new measures, and many organizations have migrated to cloud, remote, or hybrid setups. 

While these new business models provide convenience and innovative ways to reconnect with target audiences, they also invite hackers to breach corporate networks and attack systems. 

Although this isn’t anything new, the problem is that modern hackers use brand-new and unknown tools and technologies to breach security measures. 

Because of that, new security issues and challenges have arisen, such as the Log4j vulnerability that allows cybercriminals to hack into business applications and servers that host them – from a remote location.

The only way to fight the ever-evolving cybercriminal is to get familiar with the trending security challenges business organizations may face in 2023.

Getting up to date with new cybersecurity standards

In the digital business landscape, cyber threats have become more ferocious than ever, forcing companies to prioritize cybersecurity awareness, education, and training. Every modern company now invests in the latest, industry-grade solutions to enhance and upgrade cybersecurity networks. 

The lack of proper cybersecurity knowledge exposes a company to countless cyber threats, such as data theft, malware, and ransomware. For example, many modern-day enterprises get stuck in endless digital marketing possibilities without paying attention to their security networks. 

Before they know it, network hacks and data theft have exposed their brands to social stigma and customer distrust. Once you go there, you can’t come back. Once cybercriminals stain your brand reputation, there’s little you can do to clear your name. 

That’s why companies should keep their staff updated on past and future threats to ensure their employees can fully realize what they’re up against today.

Geo-targeted phishing 

Cybercriminals work tirelessly to take their hacking methods to perfection. With that in mind, post-COVID, businesses should prepare for the most sophisticated phishing attacks in 2023. 

Hackers will use advanced technologies to develop and deploy personalized and localized phishing attacks that target sensitive data pipelines, storage solutions, and security networks. 

Therefore, organizations should build comprehensive and robust cybersecurity measures and awareness programs to mitigate risks, predict potential threats, and remedy vulnerabilities before they escalate. 

In addition, companies should invest in cybersecurity tools that can monitor networks, detect suspicious activity, recognize phishing threats, and mitigate issues before they go beyond repair.

Cloud vulnerability

The cloud was believed to be the most secure data management solution due to enhanced security and utmost convenience. However, the increasing popularity of cloud management software solutions has attracted the eye of hackers. 

While the cloud enables business organizations to streamline data collection, storage, and management, it also falls short in terms of encryption and authentication protocols. That’s all a cybercriminal needs to find an exploitation point in the cloud configuration and use it to bypass internal systems and policies.

IoT and mobile issues

IoT devices allow mobile and internet users to connect to the virtual world of information. However, this connectivity is all hackers need to steal data. A report from 2019 revealed that hackers launched over 50% of cyber attacks via connected cameras and compromised routers. 

Smartphones and mobile devices are everywhere, and the number of mobile users increases daily. People use smartphones for everything, including shopping, communication, entertainment, flight booking, banking transactions, etc. 

However, mobile users don’t know that their devices are potential cyberattack vehicles for hackers. As long as IoT-enabled devices are in use, cybersecurity problems will persist.

Healthcare cyber threats

Online attacks and data breaches have become frequent in the healthcare sector, causing incomprehensible damage to business organizations in terms of costs. In 2020, the industry experienced a tremendous loss of $7.13 million. 

Naturally, common sense suggests that investing in digital security systems and cyber measures should be the highest priority for healthcare providers. Still, in the post-pandemic world, many providers had no other option but to cope with their existing systems and allow staff members to access medical records and sensitive data from remote locations.

This access gave wings to cybercriminals, allowing them to breach firewall protocols and bypass security to snatch valuable company and patient data.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity challenges during the coronavirus pandemic have forced numerous business organizations to prioritize data protection, management, and security. As cyber threats continue to evolve, companies have multiple ways to address cybersecurity risks and mitigate attacks. 

Since modern organizations know their priorities, they’ll invest in more robust infrastructure security, advanced cloud security solutions, and AI-powered threat mitigation technologies. 

Cybersecurity is no longer an option but a necessity that allows your company to thrive, beat competitors, disrupt the industry with innovation, and deliver unprecedented customer experience to every consumer.