It's time for robust cybersecurity steps

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to roil the global economy, enterprises are swiftly embracing digitisation in their bids to reach out to end customers. This acceleration towards digitisation, however, has given rise to higher cyberattacks and raises the importance of cybersecurity. With an astronomical rise in people working from home, shopping online, and being digitally more active, ransomware attacks and data breaches have been a common occurrence throughout this year. In the US alone, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) has reported that the cyberattack complaints have reached up to 4,000 per day.

A report by Cisco said that every three out of four organisations in India have witnessed 25 per cent rise in cyber threats. Many of these attacks are Covid-19 themed phishing emails, mails purporting to come from various government agencies, and fake copies of various advisories among others. Starting from IT services firm Cognizant to ecommerce player BigBasket, many large enterprises have seen data breaches this year due to cyberattacks. Given the elevated level of attacks, cybersecurity threats have imposed heavy costs on the global economy.

A recent report by cybersecurity firm McAfee revealed that the growing cybercrime incidents now cost the world economy more than $1 trillion, or more than one per cent of global GDP. This is 50 per cent higher than the earlier year. Apart from the heavy financial costs, these cyber incidents have led to lost work hours, disruption in the workflow, and higher downtime among others. However, due to the rise in cyberattacks, the cybersecurity market has got a demand boost. The growth rate of the cybersecurity market is likely to be 12-15 per cent next year as compared to around eight per cent projected earlier. According to Forrester, the global cybersecurity market is likely to reach $270 billion by 2026 from $173 billion in 2020.

The demand for cybersecurity products and services will be driven by all three segments- hardware, software, and data. Apart from laptops and desktops, even the security of mobile phones will supplement this demand trend. As the world gets its first vaccine against the pandemic in the UK, the global economy is all set to come back to a normal pace in the coming one year. However, the pace of digitisation among organisations seems irreversible. Therefore, every organisation should have a sound IT infrastructure with cybersecurity measures to thwart the evil designs of attackers.

Even, updating firewalls and anti-virus software across the digital interfaces including laptops is a must for efficient remote working. Having a backup of all critical systems is also an essential part of secured communications.

Even every individual should be aware of the basic nature of any cyberattack to avoid data breach incidents. Further, governments around the world should also initiate steps to strengthen cybersecurity protocols to protect their valuable data. Otherwise, the cost of cybercrimes will go much beyond $1 trillion. Additionally, the adverse impacts of such cybercrimes will be manifold. So, it is time for robust cybersecurity steps as digitalisation is on the rise.