In May’s issue of Be cyber Aware at Sea, Phish and Ships discusses the new normal arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing the risks arising and the cyber security issues of the digital era.
Specifically, the cybersecurity attorney Brian Finch, based with a law firm in Washington D.C., stated that there is more than one good reason to pay close attention to the changes following the pandemic. The firm compares the computers with the biological viruses, referring to a Ph.D. student that “developed a virus that would surreptitiously install itself on host computers and quietly surrender all rights, privileges, and data to Cohen.’
Thus, the software reminded Professor Len Adelman of his research into HIV infections and so the ‘computer virus’ term was coined.
According to the firm, the example above represents that computer experts understood the value of using “medical models” as a way to understand cyber security.
The Professor parallels the COVID-19 virus and its similarities to a computer virus, concerning the disruptions and the tangible financial harm to manufacturing and transportation sectors predicted to accompany a large scale cyber attack.
He added that by following all precautionary measures taken to deal with the pandemic, the cyber security sector could learn a lesson to develop their own cyber strategies.
Overall, the first steps taken by an organization attacked by a computer virus or malware incidents is to isolate and contain the problem, with recent incidents such as NotPetya requiring production/distribution shutdown as required.
The Professor commented that “future attacks could now ‘use ransomware designed specifically to freeze industrial control systems, while the Department of Homeland Security for instance has recently warned about the growing threat of viruses designed specifically to destroy the data on infected computers“.
In addition, he drew parallels between the challenges companies have to deal with when it comes to a computer or biological virus, with lack of adequate insurance being a shared issue. Specifically, in light of the SARS, some insurance carriers stopped issuing insurance policies that cover epidemics’ and that there may be considerable consequences to businesses as a result that may require governments to intervene in order to reduce ‘a global slowdown’.
Similarly, cyber attacks can also lead to great disruptions and result to significant losses; Lloyds of London estimating upwards of $200 billion – with low levels of insurance, an estimated 10% of cyberattack losses would be covered by insurance according to Lloyds.
The Law Firm highlighted that
… especially in the relatively uncharted world of massive cyberattacks, we would do well to learn as much as we can from the medical textbook so that the financial recovery chapter of the cyber playbook is as close to finished as possible.
