With Covid-19 and an economic downturn occurring, cyber risk is more challenging than ever. Covid-19 certainly caught the world by surprise, and there is a new threat in town, known as IPTs: “Instant Persistent Threats” that are now catching individuals, companies and organizations of all sizes and industries by complete surprise.
We’re coining IPTs: Instant Persistent Threats as a new threat and risk that arises when unexpected events (like Covid 19) occur and hackers and rogue amateurs seek to disrupt and take advantage of anyone that has a Wi-Fi connection. While APTs: Advanced Persistent Threats have been around for the past two decades, APTs are the opposite of an IPT.
You see, an APT attack is an attack in which an unauthorized user gains access to a system or network and remains there for an extended period of time without being detected.
While on the flip side, an IPT is an attack that has never occurred before and could never have been anticipated ahead of time being that it is a result of a world event that was never anticipated. An IPT attacker seeks to catch its recipients off guard in real-time and attempts to disrupt as many situations as possible in order to take advantage of an individual’s FUD factor vulnerabilities: fear, uncertainty and doubt.
An example of an IPT attack is “Zoom Bombing” – the hijacking of conferences by disruptive outsiders.
According to a recent FBI report, two schools in Massachusetts reported the following incidents:
- In late March 2020, a Massachusetts-based high school reported that while a teacher was conducting an online class using the teleconferencing software Zoom, an unidentified individual(s) dialed into the classroom. This individual yelled a profanity and then shouted the teacher’s home address in the middle of instruction.
- A second Massachusetts-based school reported a Zoom meeting being accessed by an unidentified individual. In this incident, the individual was visible on the video camera and displayed swastika tattoos.
As a matter of fact, one of my kids was in a Zoom meeting just yesterday with her college classmates that was being led by her college professor and profanities were being shouted which disrupted the professor from conducting the class.
Nonetheless, it is disheartening that hackers and rogue amateurs are incapable of showing empathy when it is most needed in these trying times.
Cyber insurance will no doubt be an investment that businesses and organizations will not be able to operate without and those that do not have cyber insurance coverage in place, should explore getting coverage in place before they are an unfortunate victim of an IPT or an APT attack.
Nevertheless, in a thriving economy and in an “up” market, cyber insurance was a necessity and safety net for a thriving company or organization. In a recession, or a “down” market, cyber insurance is even more of a necessity, especially when survival becomes an immediate goal. It may just be what keeps a company or organization afloat or operational in the event of a covered incident.
Therefore, due to the state of the economy, and today’s challenging cyber risks, cyber insurance will certainly be your company or organization’s biggest cyber risk safety net and ROI in 2020.
Do you need help with obtaining cyber insurance quotes for your company or organization? As experienced cyber insurance brokers, we can help your company or organization obtain multiple cyber insurance policy options and help make sense of the various coverage offerings.