Almost Half of Businesses Hit By COVID-Related “Business Impacting Cyber-Attack” in 2020

Almost Half of Businesses Hit By COVID-Related “Business Impacting Cyber-Attack” in 2020

Just under half of businesses have experienced at least one “business impacting cyber-attack” related to COVID-19 as of April 2020.





According to research of 416 security and 425 business executives by Forrester Consulting and Tenable, 41% of respondents reported the statistic related to COVID-19, whilst 94% of executives say their firms have experienced a business-impacting cyber-attack or compromise within the past 12 months. “That is, one resulting in a loss of customer, employee or other confidential data; interruption of day-to-day operations; ransomware payout; financial loss or theft and/or theft of intellectual property,” the research said.





Also, 78% of respondents said they expect an increase in cyber-attacks over the next two years while 47% reported experiencing five or more attacks. In an email to Infosecurity, Bryan Becker, product manager at WhiteHat Security, said: “There is no reason to expect this trend to ever reverse, so we are only likely to see more and more attacks in the future.





“Businesses can and should be investing in application security teams, as well as regular training for all members of the organization. CEOs and executive teams absolutely should be viewing at least quarterly briefs from the security team to understand the outcome of their investment, as well as the current state of affairs.”





On the impact of the COVID-19-related attacks, Tom Pendergast, chief learning officer at  almost businesses covid related business impacting cyber attack