While the C0VID-19 pandemic hit its peak, businesses across the globe had to make drastic changes to survive. Owing to difficulties in arranging personal meetings and the inability to work with physical documents, most organizations adopted technological innovations and went digital.

Not only did the pandemic force most companies to embrace the new digital era, but approximately 70 percent of the companies rolled out work-from-home (WFH) for their employees. This included increasing network connectivity to allow more people to connect simultaneously, shifting select workloads to the cloud to make access easier and faster, adopting new collaboration and productivity solutions like Zoom and Slack, and deploying devices like laptops along with peripherals. 

Unfortunately, while companies scrambled to keep their workers productive, there was a significant rise in cybercrime. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, few organizations had mature cybersecurity capabilities that could meet the mounting challenges posed by attackers. 

Research by Bain & Company in the fourth quarter of 2019 found that executives at many companies overestimate the effectiveness of their cybersecurity and lack the strategic capabilities essential for a robust posture. Instead of increasing cybersecurity, over 40 percent of large enterprises made moderate to significant reductions in IT budgets, and about 20 percent cut their security spending. 

This made it easier for malicious entities to launch attacks with a greater frequency and intensity on remote employees and other corporate assets. Security teams have seen more attempts at intellectual property theft, particularly since late January 2020. 

APT41, a prominent cyber threat group, reportedly targeted companies across industries in the US, UK, Canada and parts of the European Union and Middle East using recently disclosed vulnerabilities in major vendor systems. This was one of the broadest campaigns in recent years, and its aim was long-term espionage and surveillance.

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