Information Security Assignment: Impact Of COVID-19 On Information Technology
Question
Task:
Chosen Topic For Information Security Assignment: How Covid-19 has impacted Technology, Security, and Privacy worldwide?
Answer
Introduction to information security assignment
The worldwide rapid and unexpected spread of Covid-19 has become a serious concern in the recent times and has impacted the large number of economies to a great extent. The disease has resulted in not only health disturbances but has also caused economic imbalance in almost all the countries affected by it. The spread of Covid-19 has given more relevance to the concept of virtual existence in place of physical existence of humans across the world. The technology has played the most important role in the times of Covid-19 pandemic by enabling the people connect with each other in the virtual world. The requirements of maintaining social distancing to prevent the further spread of the said disease has made it very important for the humans to accept the systems of remote working wherein they have to work from home (KPMG, 2020). Working in such a virtual environment has only been possible because of the strengths of technology. Modern technology has allowed the businesses to continue their business operations even remotely. However, the increased deployment of technology in the times of the said pandemic has given raised the need to pay more attention to the information security demands as the risk of cyber attach has increased materially with increased reliance on technology more than ever.
Impact of Covid-19 on the technology:
Increased internet traffic:
The use of technology has enhanced to a greater degree leading to higher internet data consumption as people have made use of internet data to for multiple purposes like arranging conference audio or video calls for the businesses, creation and sharing of video-graphic content among colleagues for explaining the operations and for the purpose of training, setting up video calls to interact with their friends, relatives or societies, sharing necessary updates through social media platforms, binging movies or videos over various websites and so on. Undertaking such activities on the digital platform at the same time has certainly impacted the speed and quality of internet connectivity on account of heavy internet traffic (Episerver, 2020). However, the IoT devices did not experience the same glitches and they kept on functioning in the same way they were working pre-virus outbreak as their core networks have experienced minimum disturbances. The IoT devices which were already connected to the network and running on the same have found negligible hindrances due to traffic over the internet.
Delayed Project Progress:
Another important impact that could be experienced in the areas of technology because of Covid-19 is that it has delayed growth of new technological projects as such projects required formulation of various technological standards which could only be framed by group of professionals by way of exchanging their view points and ideas. As Covid-19 has made it really difficult for those expert professionals to work together the roadmap of new technologies has experienced an almost staggered phase. For instance, it was announced on 23rd March by 3GPP to release important update in relation to 5G technology which is delayed now by 3 months and has resulted in delaying of further important releases (IoT Analytics, 2020). The release which was announced was named as Release 16 and was extremely important for the industrial level IoT system as it would result in enhancing the URLLC capabilities by way of promoting strong network latency and providing support to TSN (Time-Sensitive Networking) Systems (Chamola, Hassija, Gupta & Guizani, 2020).
Remarkable ramping up of various technologies:
Since the beginning of Corona Virus outbreak companies had proactively started adopting the concept of remote working and as a result use of various collaborations tools over the internet has widened up such as video conferencing, team meetings etc. The virtualization of the systems has been possible using the Virtual Private Networks as adopted by the companies to continue their business in the changed scenario. The increased use of mobile devices such as laptops, cell-phones has been experienced which has demanded more security of the company’s data. A notable example of such ramped up technologies could be found in case of Zoom. The Zoom calls have made it quite convenient for the businesses to connect with each other digitally in the real time. In the times of Covid-19, apps like Zoom, Google Meet, Skype have gained increased importance which in turn has materially increased their revenue generation. It has been found in a research that Zoom has reported a tremendous up on its daily users since December 2019 when it was 10 Million to March when the number of users have grown to 200 million (IoT Analytics, 2020).
Accelerated digitization initiatives:
In just couple of weeks couple of weeks Covid-19 has changed the style of work being undertaken by employers as well as employees. Everyone in the current scenario is looking to embrace new technological advancements to bring more efficiency to their functioning. Moreover, the companies are now concerned about making themselves resilient to such working systems in order to prepare for any subsequent pandemics like Covid-19 and hence they are preparing to invest more in the digital infrastructure. The remote asset connectivity solution providers have found increased demand for their solutions and hence better initiatives towards digitization have been accelerated. Companies are now looking for such digital business models that could put them at the top position in their respective industries in the coming times.
The Corona outbreak has also resulted in advancement of technologies in the medical fields. The public health agencies have required development of such IoT devices that could promote regular monitoring of the disease (Goh & Sandars, 2020). There are also big data opportunities available in the areas of medical sciences to perform the modeling studies in the context of the said pandemic. Further, the digital technology has been advanced in order to accommodate the requirements of creating more awareness and education among people regarding the disease. For instance, Singaporean Government has joined hands with Whatsapp to enable public to get an access to receive timely updates related to Covid-19. Furthermore, the use of article intelligence and machine learning has supported the medical researchers to figure out the important statistics related to the said disease (Vaishya, Javaid, Khan & Haleem, 2020).
Impact of Covid-19 on the Privacy and Security aspect of the technology:
The risk of cyber-attacks has increased due to the fact that organizations have adopted the remote working system so as to provide certain level of safety against the rapidly spreading infection and to continue serving their customers. The remote working system is the system wherein all the critical information and data related to a particular business is passed on to the employees and clients through the information technologies. However, it is very crucial to note that not only remote working of corporate sector has given an opportunity to the internet scammers or cyber security attackers to reap out benefits from the crisis situations as caused by the pandemics like Covid-19 but also the general public has been the second target of such attackers since the time the news of rapidly spreading virus infection had started doing the rounds. The cyber attackers have been trying the ways to exploit the situation caused by the said pandemic. The attackers have started taking up phishing campaigns wherein the mails that were made believed to general public having coming from World Health Organization and other such entities which provides necessary and regular updates on Covid-19. There have been numerous fake news and rumors doing the rounds through multiple social media platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram and so on in the form of falsified videos, audios and messages.
Following could be some of the direct implications of Covid-19 on the technology and its security and privacy:
Ever-increasing number of cases of cyber-attacks
The statistics shows that according to the recent researches that have been conducted to identify the impact of Covid-19 on the technology, it has been found that around 71% of the professionals in the areas of information security have noticed a rise in the cyber security threats since the start of Covid-19 outbreak. The cyber attacks are being made in multiple forms such as the phishing mails as discussed above, the ransomware attacks, malware and the creation of fraudulent and fake websites which claims to collect the donations for the crisis situation as occurred in the current scenario. In the recent times, the classic case of cyber attack in the form of ransomware was reported wherein one of the renowned information technology service provider has been victimized which has resulted in various disruption of its services to its customers.
Re-evaluated Privacy:
Countries like China and Korea had developed an app for the infected people so as to know which places did they went and whom did they meet and such app became one of the reasons of these countries’ success in containing the corona virus to a great extent (IoT Analytics, 2020). However, the EU laws had considered this app as a sort of one of the security breaches as it affects one’s privacy. The transparency and privacy features of security breaches collided in such cases. While racking of such personal information of an infected individual might help in saving multiples lives by taking cure steps, stringent rules in the areas of privacy of an individual might not prove supporting the acts of preventing or controlling the further spreading of virus. Recently a company named as Accent Systems has introduced a wristband as an Internet of Things Device to trace the physical contacts of humans to control the Covid-19 (IoT Analytics, 2020). Further, India has developed an app to allow people know about most possible cases of Covid positive patients in their proximity but such may be considered as affecting the privacy of individuals.
Security receives more focus:
The adoption of digital modes of operating business has increased the risk of cyber attacks and its potential vulnerabilities have made leading companies to re-think about their information security related measures. The digital transformation has not only increased the level of concern of information security of the companies but also for the customers they have insecurities about loss or leakage of their important information while dealing with the companies digitally (Grout, Weaver & Doyle, 2020). The security concerns in the recent era of Covid-19 have alarmed a need of upgrading the security standards to an advanced level which will require introduction of stricter rules and regulations to promote cyber-security solutions.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it has now become quite clear that the occurrence of pandemic like Covid-19 has caused intensified pressure on the world economy. The unprecedented and sudden outbreak of Corona Virus has taken only couple of months to change the way of living across the world. The necessary and only possible solution of keeping the affected nations under complete lockdown has caused heavy disruptions of economic activities and has significantly changed the way businesses were carried by the companies by bring in the need of digital transformation of businesses. Considering the demand of the situation, the businesses have also left with the option of taking their presence to the online platforms to earn for their livelihoods. The switching of companies from physical office work culture to virtual office culture has raised the demand of robust technological solutions. The technological advancement in almost all the areas of business has become utterly important in the current scenario. The virtual presence of business necessitates carrying out important discussions and business operations through online platforms which involves passing critical company information over the internet. With growing use of information technology the risk IT solutions which are less prone cyber attacks. Moreover, the increased virtualization has resulted in causing heavy traffic over the internet as there are multiple users of internet technologies found at a single moment of time which cause disruption of the communication through internet. Thus, companies are nowadays concerned of technologies that could smoothen up their interaction process over the digital platform so as to undertake business without any hindrances.
References
Chamola, V., Hassija, V., Gupta, V. and Guizani, M., 2020. A Comprehensive Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Role of IoT, Drones, AI, Blockchain, and 5G in Managing its Impact. IEEE Access, 8, pp.90225-90265.
Episerver. COVID-19’s impact on data privacy, protection and security. https://www.episerver.com/guides/covid-19-privacy-considerations
Goh, P.S. and Sandars, J., 2020. A vision of the use of technology in medical education after the COVID-19 pandemic. Information security assignment MedEdPublish, 9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15694/mep.2020.000049.1
Grout, D., Weaver, R. & Doyle, J. The Security and Privacy Implications of COVID-19 Location Data Apps. https://www.fireeye.com/blog/executive-perspective/2020/05/security-privacy-implications-of-covid-19-location-data-apps.html
IoT Analytics. The impact of Covid-19 on the Internet of Things – now and beyond the Great Lockdown: Part 2 of 2. https://iot-analytics.com/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-the-internet-of-things-part-2/
KPMG. The cyber security implications of COVID-19. Working together to respond to the challenges. https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2020/04/the-cyber-security-implications-of-covid-19.html
Markets and Markets. COVID-19 Impact on Cybersecurity Market - Exclusive Report by MarketsandMarkets. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/covid-19-impact-on-cybersecurity-market--exclusive-report-by-marketsandmarkets-301046085.html
Ting, D.S.W., Carin, L., Dzau, V. and Wong, T.Y., 2020. Digital technology and COVID-19. Nature medicine, 26(4), pp.459-461.
Vaishya, R., Javaid, M., Khan, I.H. and Haleem, A., 2020. Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications for COVID-19 pandemic. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews. 14(4). pp.337–339. doi: 10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.012
