Crises have the power to hit hard on the world’s economy, health systems, and political and social landscapes. In a time of crisis, much is said and done to protect these systems and keep them running risk-free.
However, there’s another risk hidden in the fog of the crisis that prays on our vulnerability: cyber attacks. And, the coronavirus is no exception to this.
As the world continues to buckle under the weight of the coronavirus, nefarious threat actors are coming out to exploit the crisis to the benefit.
In fact, on average, 30,000 new websites are hacked every day. And naturally, as more and more businesses shift to remote work, and are void of the usual corporate perimeter protections, we can only expect this number to rise.
Against this backdrop, here are a few reasons why implementing website security measures is necessary for the protection of your business.
Cybercriminals Exploit Fear and Uncertainty
The coronavirus has brought about much concern, fear, and uncertainty across the globe. As more and more people seek some reassurances for their fears online, cybercriminals and threat actors are taking advantage of these concerns by tempting their victims and capitalizing on this popular topic.
To make matters worse, due to the sheer scale of COVID-19, cybercriminals, and threat actors now have a larger pool of victims that could fall for their appealing and creative lures.
Lack of secure hosting and out of date plugins and extensions can leave your site vulnerable to attacks. Currently, many cybercriminals are utilizing coronavirus-themed phishing emails that contain hostile links and malicious files, as well as coronavirus related domain names to create phish landing pages, spread misinformation, and distribute malware.
These are only some of the new ways cybercriminals and threat actors are exploiting the global crisis to distribute harmful attacks and scams. Therefore, it’s critical to stay vigilant and protect your business, data, and customers from the get-go with website security. After all, recovering from a website attack is far more time-consuming and expensive than investing in protection. And remember, the clean-up process can take days, not to mention, it’s not guaranteed that a business will recover from a cyber attack.
A Heightened Dependency on Digital Channels
In an attempt to combat the spread of the coronavirus, governments around the world are implementing social distancing measures, and in some countries, total lockdown. This instantly has turned the internet into the most effective medium for facilitating remote working, human connection, and interaction.
However, this increased dependency on digital tools has also opened the doors to broad-based cyber attacks – just take a look at the number of cyber attacks taking place daily on ThreatCloud, a live cyber threat map.
The more time we spend online, the more chances of being targeted by cybercriminals or inadvertently engaging in risky internet behavior, which makes you vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Prevents Customer Data Exploitation
Your website is your brand, your storefront, and often, the first point of contact with potential customers. If your website isn’t safe and secure, or if attackers manage to compromise sensitive customer data, then this will have a major impact on your brand and reputation.
People are already nervous about the security risks of the internet, and most customers have a basic understanding of the security precautions they should take when online. Meaning, whether or not they will trust a particular business highly depends on its security measures. In fact, 87% of consumers say they will take their business elsewhere if they don’t trust a company is handling their data responsibly.
Threats can come in many forms, including infecting a website with malware in order to spread said malware to visitors, stealing customer information, stealing credit card and other transaction information, and more.
Online users implicitly trust the websites they visit and the web applications they work with. If attackers are allowed to steal visitor sessions or identities or compromise their devices, that trust would be irreparably broken – spelling bad news for your business.
So the more you do to build visitors’ trust in your security, the more likely they will remain on your site, return, and recommend your business.
Final Note
As time goes on, and the global crisis continues to develop, businesses may need to adopt additional measures to better adapt to the situation.
But, regardless of the global situation, cybercriminals will always continue to pursue their goals. Therefore, cybersecurity should be a part of your business and IT planning right from the start.
Be proactive in protecting yourself, business, customer data, and assets from cyber threats by implementing the right website security solution for you. Take the time to do your research to ensure the solution you pick caters to your security needs, prevents malicious attacks, and secures customer trust.
And never forget, it’s easier to build security in right from the start than to clean up after compromise.