Guest Commentator: Bill Birnie, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Online Division, OpSec Security @OpSecSecurity
During a period of increased virtual interactions and transactions such as online shopping, why is it crucial for businesses to invest in effective cybersecurity tools and authentication strategies?
With around 20 percent of the world’s population placed under lockdown during the first wave of the pandemic, Internet use quickly rocketed to a new high and has stayed there. For more than a year, people in all corners of the globe have relied on the Internet to maintain contact with friends and family, work, shop, and stay entertained. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic acted as a powerful accelerant for the largely digital lifestyle.
These significant changes have also increased threats to individuals and businesses online as bad actors exploit new opportunities and vulnerabilities. Criminals sought weak points, as in new digital services and applications, as soon as employees started using IT to work from home full-time. Besides initiating extensive email phishing campaigns, bad actors also capitalized on consumers’ health fears, resulting in a flood of counterfeit goods such as masks and fake COVID-19 testing kits. Barely a month into the pandemic in Europe, international law enforcement agencies seized more than 34,000 counterfeit and substandard masks while a year later police in China and South Africa swooped on thousands of fake COVID-19 vaccine doses.
Businesses can take simple measures to educate both their employees and customers about online security, by, for example, sharing information about how they may be targeted and the ways in which they can keep themselves safe and check for authenticity. As part of this, brands should also outline what they are doing to protect their customers. By demonstrating that customer security genuinely is a priority and detailing the brand protection schemes they have in place, brands will be able to build trust and ensure consumers only have positive
In this changed world, brands must revise their security to meet new challenges online and recognize that COVID-19 may have lasting consequences for consumer behavior and business vulnerabilities. Often short of internal expertise, brands must seek out experts who can help identify the multiple threats developed by cyber-criminals before they inflict significant damage. They must disable fraudulent activity as early as possible to ensure their business remains intact, along with its reputation with customers and suppliers. Once this mitigation capability is embedded it will be possible to seize new opportunities and grow revenues without the crippling fear that customer trust is at risk.
Through Recharge & Recover PHL, the Chamber is working with our members to make Greater Philadelphia a digital community with increased digital literacy, technology, and internet use.
This objective is part of five aspirations of Recharge & Recover PHL with the aim to support not only Greater Philadelphia’s recovery but to also provide a means to differentiate our region for decades to come.
