Cybersecurity Attacks and Vulnerabilities During COVID-19

ABSTRACT

As a result of quick transformation to digitalization for providing the employees teleworking/home office services with the capabilities to access company resources from outside the company over Internet using remote desktop and virtual private network (VPN) applications and the increase in digital activity during COVID-19 such as the usage of audio/video conferencing applications, many businesses have been victims of cyber attacks. This paper investigates whether there was an increase in the frequency of cyber attacks during COVID-19. It also identifies the motivations for such attacks in light of software/hardware/system vulnerabilities. Following this research, we also categorize vulnerabilities and develop a taxonomy. Such a taxonomy helped to identify the type of attacks on their frequency and their impact. To do that, we developed a research methodology to collect attack and vulnerability information from the selected databases. Using relevant key words, we developed the taxonomy that led us to create insightful information to answer the research questions that are thoroughly analyzed and presented accordingly. This work also recommended a list of mitigation measures that can be considered in the future to prepare the industry for a similar pandemic including establishing and maintaining a Information Security Management System (ISMS) by following relevant standards (ISO/SAE 2700x, BSI-Standards 200-x, SMEs CISIS12®). © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.