Contributed

The COVID-19 cyberwar: How to protect your organization and business

July 30, 2020 •

IBM

Cybersecurity threats have escalated, as bad actors take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic. While organizations worry about newly pressing concerns—workforce well-being, finance availability, and the resiliency of operations and supply chains—cybersecurity focus is being overshadowed and risks are rising.

The tendency toward ad hoc decision making during crises only accelerates the opportunity to exfiltrate data or compromise business operations. The potential impacts are more dangerous, too. A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, for instance, can be far more damaging in an operational environment that is already strained for capacity than one launched when additional capacity is readily available.

In this report, we identify key steps security leaders can take now to manage discrete, high-impact events that may arise in this environment and to prepare for additional unforeseen scenarios. Every cybersecurity crisis has a three-part lifecycle:

Planning and detection
In-the-moment response and remediation
Recovery

The first step is for leaders to identify where they are in that lifecycle and prioritize their actions accordingly. We have created recommended actions for each phase as a guide. In particular, the current pandemic environment demands increased attention to response and remediation. Drawing on lessons learned from incident response drills in security operations centers (SOCs) and cyber ranges (virtual environments for testing security capabilities), we have found that highly resilient organizations do three

things well: organize and deploy resources, communicate regularly, and coordinate responses.

The potential for continued disruption during this pandemic is high, making cyber resilience crucial. Business continuity and crisis management plans can become major strategic assets. Download the full report below and check out the supplemental action guide:

DOWNLOAD HERE

About IBM

In business for more than 100 years, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is a widely held, publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Originally called the Computing Tabulating Recording Company, it was incorporated in the State of New York in 1911 and manufactured products ranging from commercial scale and industrial time recording equipment to tabulators and punched cards. It was renamed International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in 1924.

IBM is one of the world's largest information technology companies, operating in over 175 countries with over 264,300 full-time employees. The company creates value for clients by providing integrated solutions and products that help them transform their businesses and engage with their customers and employees in new ways. These solutions draw from an industry-leading portfolio of consulting and IT implementation services, cloud, digital, and cognitive offerings, and enterprise systems and software, all bolstered by one of the world's leading research organizations.

IBM Technology is addressing the hybrid cloud and AI opportunity with a platform-centric approach, focused on providing client value through a combination of technology and business expertise. We provide integrated solutions and products that leverage data, information technology, deep expertise in industries and business processes, with trust and security and a broad ecosystem of partners and alliances. Our hybrid cloud platform and AI technology and services capabilities support clients' digital transformations and help them engage with their customers and employees in new ways. These solutions draw from an industry-leading portfolio of capabilities in software, consulting services, and a deep incumbency in mission-critical systems, all bolstered by one of the world's leading research organizations.

IBM Consulting delivers business transformation, technology consulting, and application operations by leveraging hybrid cloud and AI technologies from IBM, along with our ecosystem partners. To support our hybrid cloud strategy, we built up the Red Hat business to over $2.5 billion. We are pursuing a similar approach for our AI strategy with over 16,000 accredited consultants. We have also scaled our focus on the ecosystem to create multi-billion-dollar partnerships with AWS, Microsoft, and SAP. Our consulting capabilities help clients to realize value from their digital transformations, for example, a global provider of business decisioning data and analytics is leveraging watsonx for a procurement solution to improve savings, reduce time, and mitigate risk.

For more information, please visit our website at http://www.ibm.com.

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The COVID-19 cyberwar: How to protect your organization and business

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