How the Coronavirus Changes Company Risk Assessments?
The coronavirus infection has already spread to over 93,000 people worldwide, with around 3,200 recorded deaths. Global health, as well as the economy, are taking huge tolls because of the outbreak. While doctors and scientists are trying their best to deal with the health aspects of the disease, let us look at how we can change company risk assessments to protect the security posture and business continuity in companies.
The employee risk assessment must be included
Typically, when companies think of security risk assessments, they are focused on network, application, physical, or third-party vendor-related risks. However, given the current state of the coronavirus outbreak, another aspect – employee risk assessments – must be incorporated as a major component of company risk assessments. The health status of your employees can have a huge impact on the business operations of your company. Monitor if any of your employees have visited an affected country in the past couple of weeks for personal or business-related reasons. Keep an eye on those displaying any symptoms. It will be in the best interest of all the employees and the company operations if at-risk employees are asked to work from home.
Network security assessments must be upgraded
Taking advantage of the scare and panic caused by the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, cybercriminals are using a new tactic to trap well-meaning people. A set of phishing emails is doing the rounds all over the world, primarily in the US and western Europe. Some of these emails appear as if they have been sent by the CDC offering knowledge of any recent new cases of coronavirus infection in the geographical areas where the victims of these emails are located. Others impersonate medical practitioners claiming to provide information on how to protect oneself from the coronavirus infection. Both kinds of emails are being used to circulate links and documents that when clicked or downloaded can lead to cybercriminals stealing the victims’ personal data and credentials and installing malware on their systems. To prevent these events from happening in your company, it is important that such malicious links and domains be investigated in your information security risk assessment.
Vendor risk assessments must be improved
An important reason why a lot of companies are suffering due to the coronavirus outbreak is also that China is a major source of raw materials for many industries. Many companies around the world have already recorded drops in revenue and are predicting the market to get worse if the outbreak continues for a few more months. For your third-party vendors located in China or another country that is witnessing the wrath of the coronavirus, you should add another layer of vendor assessment. If any of your vendors are from the regions where the coronavirus has
spread, you may have to think of alternate vendor options.
Conclusion
Keeping their businesses sustainable in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak is proving to be a challenge for a lot of companies. It is high time companies revisited their risk assessments
to upgrade them with the new aspects we have discussed above.