Cybersecurity Lessons that Can Be Learned from Covid-19
By Matt Brennan
We’re in the midst of watching how every nation on the globe responds to a significant health crisis in real time, and there are some cybersecurity lessons we can take from this experience. First, let’s take a quick look at what’s happening in the world right now. In certain high-population areas, hospitals have been overrun and the health crisis is playing out in a very real way. The stay-at-home orders were able to limit the spread of the virus in other locations.
As we watch the Covid-19 response play out in real time, there are some natural parallels that can be drawn with cybersecurity and keeping sensitive business information safe during a crisis. These threats have enough in common that they often share a common name: viruses. So, it stands to reason that there could be some cybersecurity lessons from all of this.
Cybersecurity Lessons to Be Found in the Covid-19 Response
Lesson 1: Understand the Correlation Between Convenience and Security
So much of American life is set up in commune with others. We love our sporting events, concerts, festivals, and other large gatherings. We love public transportation, restaurants, and retail. So many of these things are set up for easy access and convenience. They’re part of our comfortable way of life. When there is a health and safety threat, we find ourselves in the position of sacrificing convenience for added security.
It’s the same with running your business.
There is a heavy emphasis on streamlining the workflow. Efficient processes can help speed up necessary tasks and ultimately make your company more profitable. This can pit convenience and security against each other. Minor inconveniences like two-factor authentication or automatic updates can also go a long way in keeping information secure.
Lesson 2: The Importance of Testing
Testing is the method that communities, states, and nations use to understand the depth of the Covid-19 issue within their community. Without this in-depth testing, there would be no way to understand just how deeply rooted the problem is within their borders.
The same rings true with cybersecurity. If you lack the methods to discover what’s been compromised, you’ll never be able to take the proper steps to fix the problem. The adage rings true in both areas: if you don’t understand the problem, you cannot fix it.
Lesson 3: Protect Assets
Certain segments of the population (the elderly and those with another medical diagnosis) fall into the most vulnerable categories with Covid-19. Nations are coming to terms with what it means to protect these elements of the population. Protecting these segments is another of the big cybersecurity lessons from Covid-19.
Certain data sets are more vulnerable to cyberattacks as well. Sensitive customer information, your most important financial information, and other key data points must be protected. The more valuable certain data is to the health of your business, the more valuable it will be to those looking to do you harm.
Lesson 4: Stop or Control the Spread
When you know how a virus (biological or computer) is spread, you know how to control its spread as well. For example, stay-at-home measures, the use of masks, and washing your hands is reducing the spread of Covid-19.
Added security and data backups can minimize the impact of cyberattacks as well. When your cybersecurity is set up to protect your most crucial data, it becomes harder to compromise. These cybersecurity lessons from Covid-19 can help you to understand and better protect valuable data.
