KPMG: six steps to improve cybersecurity amidst COVID-19
As the impact of COVID-19 brings more people than ever before onto digital platforms, we take a look at KPMG’s six steps to improve cybersecurity.
“Organisations that want to protect themselves from these types of crisis must ensure to incorporate these types of scenarios in their periodic risk assessments at board and operational level. No one can deny that the likelihood of this threat is insignificant or nihil and that investments to deal with, or avoid, these risks will be wisely applied by senior management,” commented Ton Diemont, the firm’s Head of Cybersecurity in Saudi Arabia.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, KPMG has seen a rise in malware using the virus itself as bait. Cybercriminals are trying to take advantage of the current global uncertainty. KMPG has also seen a rise in additional phishing, online scams and malware installed via Covid-19 heatmaps and social media campaigns.
Six steps to improving cybersecurity amidst COVID-19:
- Maintaining open communication with employees as to how they can work securely and safely, as well as how they should handle the situation
- Ensure that every employee is aware of what the protocol is
- Ensure help desks remain fully operational
- Maintain vigilance when it comes to phishing or whaling emails
- Ensure CIOs and CISO are included in business decision relating to the crisis, to ensure they are a part of the crisis management
- ‘Think in solutions, not in bottlenecks’
Other specialists within the cybersecurity sector comment that “while very few of these cyber-attacks are technically sophisticated, cybercriminals are successful as they are capitalising on the state of concern across the globe. The criminals use social engineering techniques, including ‘baiting’, whereby the attackers send out a false promise to pique a victim’s curiosity, and ‘scareware’, which sees users bombarded with false alarms, directing them to an action that leads to a malicious site and infects their computer. Other techniques include ‘pretexting’, ‘phishing’ and ‘spear phishing’,” commented Simon Fisher, Executive Vice President, ACE Insurance Brokers (Gulf).
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- Read the latest issue of Business Chief, Middle East edition, here
For more information on business topics in the Middle East, please take a look at the latest edition of Business Chief Middle East.
