The recent acceleration in digital transformation served as a positive opportunity for agile businesses to improvise and adapt to new customer habits. Concurrently, the intensive shift to online commerce has brought about a corresponding surge in cybercrime.
Bank of Valletta and The Malta Chamber recently organised a free webinar to raise awareness on the changing landscape of cybersecurity and how businesses can reinforce resilience so as to mitigate potential cybercrimes.
“COVID-19 shifted businesses from the office onto the web,” Marisa Xuereb, deputy president of The Malta Chamber, said.
“Businesses and even customers are therefore more exposed to cybercriminals, as the network of cybercrime continues to grow.”
Joseph Agius, chief technology officer at BOV, added: “Cyber-security is no longer just a technological accessory, it is now a business issue. The consequences of suffering a cyberattack are massive, resulting in data loss, system outage and reputational damage.”
He described today’s attackers as highly-sophisticated ones, carrying out hacks through malware and identity theft, among others, and concluded that for such reasons, businesses should measure the efficiency of existing security controls, manage organisational risk and invest in adaptive and flexible IT infrastructure.
The webinar highlighted how businesses should have a contingency plan of combating cybercrime by seeking consultancy, setting up a security team, deploying multiple layers of security and constantly educating employees to be cyber-smart.
A recording of this webinar can be viewed on https://youtu.be/9hs9FgNqdG4.