Basil Jarrett | Cybersecurity post-COVID

I remember the very first time I sent an email. It was circa 1997 and one of my old high school buddies had called to say he had something out of this world to show me. It was something called the Internet and it was going to change our lives. There was just one problem. To get on it, you needed to use a computer and in those days, computers were the exclusive domain of nerds, techies and geeks. In other words, not the cool kids. But I was curious and went to visit him to see what was this World Wide Web thing that he had literally strung together in his bedroom.

What I found was a mind-blowing, limitless world of information at my fingertips. I could type a message, click send and instantaneously my Hotmail would appear on another computer screen halfway around the world. Truly jaw-dropping. What was even more impressive was just the sheer amount of information and data that one could download using one of the myriad search engines available. Long before Google was a thing, Lycos, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Alta Vista, Explorer and Netscape were our go-to domains. And best of all, it was all free. I remember being so amazed by this Internet thing that I immediately began to download, save, print and archive everything I could before someone realised what had happened and suddenly turned off the supply.

THE NEW NORMAL

In the years following that initial discovery, the World Wide Web became a staple in our lives facilitating everything from paying bills, watching movies, buying (or stealing) music, communicating across distances, shopping, studying … no aspect of life was untouched. Even the sights and sounds of everyday life changed overnight as the annoying yet familiar screech of the then state-of-the-art 56kb dial-up modem replaced the satellite dish as the new social status symbol. Post offices went extinct. Video cassette and DVD rentals became a thing of the past. Once beloved weekend pastimes like going to Record Plaza in Half-Way Tree and spending the entire afternoon reading CD liner notes and song lyrics from new cassette releases made way for endless music searches and downloads on Napster and Piratebay. The dot.com boom, free downloads, ICQ and other Internet chatrooms, AOL, pop-up ads, Myspace … To say the information superhighway was transformative would be the understatement of the last century. The Internet didn’t just change our way of life, it grabbed it by the scruff of the neck, threw it across its lap and spanked it mercilessly with a T3 LAN cable, beating the daylight out of the old and completely replacing everything we knew or did.

But as with all radical events in life, we eventually settled in and adapted as the growth of the Internet slowed for a brief moment, only to be supercharged again by the mobile phone revolution which literally opened up a new, vaster frontier for our digital lives.

THE POST-COVID DIGITAL ERA

And just when you thought it couldn’t grow further or faster, here comes COVID-19 and those stubborn outposts of our life, still holding out and refusing to submit to the dark side, were finally forced to admit defeat by going completely digital.

In 2021, an additional 782 million people came online just two years into the pandemic. That’s more than twice the population of the United States. And according to the International Telecommunication Union, Internet users worldwide grew to 4.9 billion that same year, as we transitioned to remote work, remote school, even remote health services as we coped with the pandemic.

But at the same time, we also began to experience an exponential increase in the global level of cybersecurity threats, by some counts, up to as much as 81 per cent over pre-pandemic levels. These cyberattacks included ransomware and malware attacks, scamming and extortion, phishing and other online and email-based attacks. Even here in Jamaica, there has been a significant increase in the number of cyberattacks on financial institutions and corporations. Not even government agencies and ministries are immune as over the past two years there have been numerous attempts to garner sensitive information of citizens, through attempted breaches of critical public and private sector network.

CYBER AWARENESS

The fact that this October is being celebrated as Cybersecurity Awareness Month is significant because disruptions due to cybersecurity breaches can decrease the flow of crucial products and services, obstruct or disrupt key economic and financial functions, and effectively shut down vital public institutions.

Criminals have turned to the cyber domain to take advantage of the phenomenal growth and expansion of the digital economy and its lucrative financial potential, by migrating ‘offline’ crimes such as money laundering and extortion into cyberspace, further requiring that we become and remain proactive and vigilant.

Cybersecurity must truly become everyone’s responsibility as, despite huge investments in hardware, software and other encryption technologies, the human element remains the weakest link. Persons must take greater care to protect themselves and their personal information by modifying their behaviours online. Simple changes such as Multi-factor Authentication (MFA), a fancy term used to describe the use of two or more verification factors to gain access to an app, online account or email, must become standard practice. Adopting the use of stronger passwords, creating and enforcing more stringent cybersecurity policies in the workplace, mandating routine software updates and frequent cyber awareness training must become standard. This responsibility will only increase as we become even more dependent on existing and emerging online technologies for everyday functions.

The truth is, cybersecurity threats, like the technological innovations that have ushered them in, are here to stay. Our ability to conduct business, host meetings and events are now wholly dependent on technological innovation. Just like my first encounter with this online beast in 1997, we have no choice but to prepare ourselves for this new future.

Major Basil Jarrett is a communications strategist and CEO of Artemis Consulting, a communications consulting firm specialising in crisis communications and reputation management. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com