The recent acceleration in digital transformation served as a positive opportunity for agile businesses to improvise and adapt to new customer habits. Concurrently, the intensive shift to online commerce has brought about a corresponding surge in cybercrime. 

Bank of Valletta and The Malta Chamber recently organised a free webinar, to raise awareness about the changing landscape of cybersecurity and how businesses can reinforce resilience so as to mitigate potential cybercrimes. 

“COVID-19 shifted businesses from the office onto the web,” commenced Marisa Xuereb, Deputy President of The Malta Chamber. “Businesses and even customers are therefore more exposed to cybercriminals, as the network of cybercrime continues to grow”. Ms Xuereb particularly highlighted the increase in remote working to be a beacon that attracts online criminals. 

“Cybersecurity is no longer just a technological accessory, it is now a business issue,” claimed Joseph Agius, Chief Technology Officer at Bank of Valletta. “The consequences of suffering a cyberattack are massive, resulting in data loss, system outage and reputational damage.” He described today’s attackers as highly sophisticated ones, carrying out hacks through malware and identity theft among others. Mr Agius concluded that for such reasons, businesses should measure the efficiency of existing security controls, manage organisational risk and invest in adaptive and flexible IT infrastructure. 

With the intensive growth of digitalisation and the continuous switch to remote working, the exposure to cybercrime will increase. Being 100% safe cannot be guaranteed, but mitigating risk is possible.

Businesses should have a contingency plan of combatting cybercrime by seeking consultancy, setting up a security team, deploying multiple layers of security and constantly educating employees to be cyber-smart. 

A recording of this webinar can be viewed on the BOV Youtube channel.