Beware, cyberattacks are on the rise!

By Ben Ologunde

As COVID-19 hit a world unprepared, criminal minds are proving to be deadly with the development of innovative ways to enrich their pockets. The coronavirus pandemic has indeed exposed opportunities and gaps in the manner information is handled. 

The lockdown experience in Nigeria and other parts of the world have crippled business activities and economic projections of government agencies and companies but it has also proven to be a boom time for other companies such as the fintech companies.

Deloitte, in its annual cybersecurity outlook, described 2020 as the “year of shifts”. The firm said, “We will witness unprecedented cyberattacks and cybersecurity solutions. We have named it the “year of shifts”, as we expect significant changes in cybercrime and counter-measures.”

According to the report, the main targets for cyber-attackers will be the cloud-based systems, user mobile devices, IOTs and Small & Medium Enterprises as well as organisations in the non-financial sector. 

It said organisations with cloud-based infrastructure would be exposed due to misconfigured cloud infrastructures, mobile devices would be exposed to more sophisticated phishing attacks that could convince even the most security-conscious individuals, and SMEs would be exposed due to their unpreparedness. 

Deloitte said 2020 would also see organisations liable to exposure through unprotected third party vendors and suppliers.

It said, “Everyone is prone to phishing at any time because cyberattacks are coordinated. Therefore cybersecurity should be understood at all cadres. Education of the populace should be done in all languages and also at every level. It should also be introduce in school curriculum. 

“The need to drive policies on the part of the government in this direction is needful. Investment is require in training of individual and also the development of Artificial Intelligence, which can intercept an intended attack. Cybersecurity insurance is predicted to give a profit of $7.5 billion in 2020.”

We are in an age where information is a most prized asset. Men have played God with data. Applications are developed daily, and mobile gadgets user more exposed. Partnerships during sign up are more properly understood. Privacy issue is becoming the order of the day with the rise in reported cases of hacked social media accounts. Cybersecurity is shifting to ZERO trust security standard. Therefore, be vigilant because ignorance is costlier than ever before.

• Ologunde, a geology graduate, currently works in the Nigerian banking sector