Looking forward: Information Security after Covid-192 min read

As the situation with the Covid-19 progresses, many businesses are starting to look forward as they adapt their current operations. Gaps in functionalities or communications have now been made evident, and organisations should take steps to ensure that they are better prepared for another large-scale disruption, should one occur in the future.

The pandemic has shown that supply chains, for the most part, are not very strong. A slight disruption, without a contingency plan in place, can grind entire business operations to a halt. Attempts to adapt to local restrictions, such as lockdowns, have presented their own challenges as information becomes inherently more insecure as people work from home. Cyber attackers have adapted as well – by shifting their focus to phishing scams and hacks on videoconferencing software.

With all this in mind, here are some things organisations should consider as they stabilise and start to recover after the pandemic:

Increasing your organisational resilience. After this, there is no doubt that you should take all the necessary precautions to ensure your business is resilient to a number of risk factors. Unexpected disturbances should not cause you to completely stop functioning, but rather should call for the implementation of a thoughtful contingency strategy. If you aren’t already, start tracking risk indicators from various sources, using a tool like CyDesk, to see if there are patterns. Use this data to proactively manage those risks, creating a strategy that serves those needs and strengthens your business goals.

Quick onboarding. The pandemic caused major disruptions to supply chains, leaving businesses scrambling to find and onboard new vendors. This is typically a manual, time-consuming task, and proper due diligence must be ensured to prevent costly attacks or fines. CyDesk automates the onboarding process, saving you time and ensuring that supply chains can get to work quickly.

Supply chain visibility and management. Now, more than ever, organisations need clear visibility into their digital ecosystem. Considering the amount of factors that can affect a vendor, and therefore the entire supply chain, organisations should be using a tool, such as CyDesk, to visualise their suppliers, with critical dependencies highlighted. CyDesk goes even further, collating risk indicators from a variety of sources about your entire ecosystem, giving you as much warning as possible about a potential disruption. This way, you can make proactive management decisions, turning those crucial risks into solvable problems.

There will have to be a serious reckoning about how far an organisation has to go to be considered resilient, and it is never too early to start these steps to ensure operational stability. After Covid-19, organisations will hopefully consider the impacts of future mass disruptions, creating more efficient and stronger businesses for the future.