The Greater Need for Antivirus Software in the Post-Pandemic World

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected almost all kinds of businesses. Due to obvious health concerns, it triggered sudden and radical changes in the way businesses operate, employees work, and people interact with each other.

While digital technology was already becoming more common in nearly every field before the public health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the trend beyond imagination. It forced a large number of businesses to go online and people to be confined within their homes. As a result, in most companies, remote work and video conferencing replaced traditional in-office work and meetings.

This massive shift to online platforms and technologies has only worsened the cyber-security concerns.

How the Covid-19 Pandemic Exacerbated Cybersecurity Concerns

 1. Lack of Cybersecurity in the Home Office

One of the biggest changes that the pandemic has brought is the forced transition to working from home. Before the pandemic, about three-quarters of employees had never worked from home. Despite that, most offices didn’t provide any training on how to safely interact with corporate resources online.

Since most people have negligible knowledge about taking precautions and reinforcing their systems against online threats, they are easier targets for hackers and cybercriminals.

2. The Use of Unprotected Personal Systems and Equipment

The Global Security Insights Report revealed that about 80 percent of UAE organizations experienced cyber threats due to more employees working remotely or from home.

The fact that many companies didn’t provide their employees with corporate resources is enough to show how vulnerable corporate resources have become post-pandemic to digital threats, scams, attacks, and phishing.

According to experts, about one-fourth of PCs are not safeguarded with antivirus software which makes these systems 5.5 times more vulnerable to being infected or targeted by hackers.

For desktops and laptop computers, the most common threats are Trojans, potentially unwanted programs (PUP), viruses, worms, and spyware. And every day, more than 350,000 new malicious programs are detected.

Besides, ransomware attacks have increased multiple folds in 2021 revealing that no industry and no device is safe from these malicious activities.

 3. Unprotected Channels for Remote Work

In most offices, IT administrators keep an eye on the security of the Internet channel through firewalls and other cyber security techniques. However, when employees work from home, they install networking equipment on their own which puts companies’ websites and data at risk heavily.

Things like Cloud documents, emails, attachments, instant messaging, and third-party services – all of them are vulnerable to online threats. Though some businesses may have escaped from such attacks, it takes only one mistake for a cyber disaster to strike.

Thus, organizations that offer their employees the choice of remote work and work from home must review their policies, educate their staff about cyber threats, and provide them with powerful antivirus software and other means to protect their systems.

 4. Unsafe Usage of Collaboration Tools

With the increasing trend of remote working and working from home, the demand for videoconferencing software and collaboration tools has skyrocketed, which in turn, has attracted the interest of hackers and cybercriminals.

Security gaps have been found even in legitimate video conference tools, including Microsoft Teams, which might be surprising for many but it is a fact. Such tools put computers at risk of being controlled by outsiders. Hence, the use of such tools warrants monitoring, scanning, and blocking of any act that seems suspicious.

 5. The Classic Scheme of Fake Payments

During the last two years, the number of malicious emails that are related to welfare benefits has increased exponentially. These emails claim to be from legitimate welfare organizations and promise the victim full compensation in exchange for a small commission to transfer the funds. In the end, victims never get the compensation as all of it is nothing but a scam.

Unsurprisingly, cybercriminals take advantage of even real news. A great example is Facebook giving grants to small businesses. Cybercriminals cited the news and made an announcement that payments were due to all users of the platform. Then, they asked the victims to apply by entering their account username and password, social security number, address, and a copy of IDs. With this scam, they made a handsome amount of money.

 6. Increasing Trend of Covid-Themed Phishing

While people around the world are struggling due to Covid-19 and governments are battling to make the arrangements for necessary resources to provide relief, cybercriminals found several ways to capitalize on the people’s fear of the virus.

According to Google, more than 100 million malware and phishing emails related to Covid-19 are blocked by Gmail alone. In addition to this, more than 240 million Covid-related daily spam messages were reportedly received by users.

Scammers impersonate government departments and health officials ask the victims to fill out details, and use their email IDs and passwords to follow the link. In the end, the sensitive information ends up going into the hands of cybercriminals.

The above data clearly shows the emergency of taking proper and quick measures to protect systems and users against digital crime.

How to Protect Yourself Against Cyber Risks, Scams, and Frauds

To ensure that you don’t become a victim of cybercrime, it is highly recommended to install powerful and cost-effective antivirus software. It will help protect your devices not only from malicious viruses but also from malware, ransomware, rootkits, worms, and spyware. It will safeguard your device against techniques that try to escape from being detected and block targeted online attacks and exploits as well.

Apart from installing antivirus software, you should also take the following precautions:

• Never click on the links from strangers.
• Don’t download files from emails if you cannot trust their senders.
• Configure programs and set up devices properly and use corporate devices and company-approved software only.
• Ask your employer to strengthen the security of company devices.

Reliable protection is necessary for all types of devices whether they are used for personal or corporate purposes. Having reinforced them with advanced antivirus software can act as a strong defense layer between your devices and cybercriminals.

Author: TechBlonHub

As a passionate blogger, I'm thrilled to share my expertise, insights, and enthusiasm with you. I believe that technical knowledge should be shared, not hoarded. That's why I take the time to craft detailed, well-researched content that's easy to follow, even for non-tech. I love hearing from you, answering your questions, and learning from your experiences. Your feedback helps me create content that's tailored to your needs and interests