Data Security During The Coronavirus Crisis – The Lessons Behind The Breaches

As the pandemic continues to threaten our health, our economy and our world as we know it, a more covert threat is rapidly increasing in our digital world: cyber-attacks. In this current climate, for many our only option is to use digital technology to work remotely, order our groceries and virtually connect with others. Hackers are quickly exploiting our increased reliance on online services and the fact we are now interacting with our colleagues over new mediums, with cyber-attacks reportedly up by 37% over the last month. Now more than ever is the time to take cybersecurity seriously.

Over the past year, we've seen the UK's data protection regulator (the ICO) crack down on organisations' poor security measures. Insufficient security has led to a concerning amount of employee and customer personal data being compromised and serious reputational and financial damage for the organisations involved. Some of the breaches took place pre-GDPR so the old fine limit