How Covid-19 Is Changing The Cyber Security Profession

COVID-19 has changed cyber security drastically. The world has become a densely virtual space, work from home has become the new norm, and fear and misinformation have become rampant. In this article, we will shed light on how the global health pandemic has changed cybersecurity practices, strategies, education, demand, and the job market. We will learn why more and more people are learning ethical hacking courses online, why organizations are on a spree to hire Chief Information Security Officers, and why cyber security professionals are getting paid more than ever. Here are a few things that have been impacted in this field due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Cyber Security Professionals Are In More Demand Than Ever

Because of the lockdowns and social distancing all over the world, we have fallen to virtual mediums for help to carry on with our lives. People have become more reliant on their mobile phones and computers. Whether for personal or professional reasons, digital technology has been in more use than ever during the pandemic. And as a result of that, cyber threats have also risen significantly in number and rate. While so many people were laid off or lost their businesses because of the downturn the world economy took, cyber security professionals actually increased in demand due to the rising cyber-attacks.

Did you know: Experts reported a whopping 4,000 cyber attacks per day since the coronavirus pandemic hit. The World Health Organisation also reported a five-fold rise in their cyber attacks. Hackers created thousands of fake coronavirus-related websites every single day.

Cyber Security Professionals Now Need New Skills And New Tools

The pandemic has not just resulted in more cyber attacks but also in more advanced cyber attacks. Now that online shopping, video calling, video conferencing, smart devices, geo-tracking apps, video games, video streaming, online banking, and cloud services are being used at a large scale, hackers have taken their game up a notch and have found new ways to exploit digital systems and breach into people’s data. This has made it important for cyber security professionals to advance their skill set as well. Learning from the hackers themselves, CEH online experts (Certified Ethical Hacker experts) are now learning new malware analysis, encryption systems, and cloud computing threats among other things.

Cyber Security Professionals Are Adapting To The Work From Home Culture

Did you know: 25% of people reported that they have noticed an increase in phishing emails since they began working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thanks to the work from home arrangement, businesses can continue to carry on with their operations from remote corners of the world. However, this has posed a new risk in the business security ecosystem. The network parameters have changed from physical to virtual, and now the home wifis of ‘remote employees’ have become the new security priority of organizations. It has also become difficult for employers to watch out for insider security threats in this arrangement. While IT security departments are realizing that they are now too late to educate their employees regarding cyber security risks, the use of VPNs, and other measures, it has stirred a big cyber security crisis at our hands. Since it has become almost impossible for businesses to adapt their security strategies to the changing network structure so quickly, many clients have pulled back from organizations that were earlier in charge of handling their highly confidential data. Therefore, the pandemic has forced network security engineers to adapt to the new norm and figure out a different strategy to keep the company’s data safe and secure from intruding hackers.