The Adoption of Technology Post COVID-19.

Over the last couple of years, we've witnessed significant changes in the way that we work, behave and share online.

What's changed?

In the world post-pandemic, businesses have been facing severe disruptions such as the pandemic and the work from home revolution, cybersecurity threats, extreme weather and it's repercussions, and the global talent shortage.

These challenges have pushed us into completely transforming how businesses operate. Restaurants have been adapting into primarily online ordering, retail has been transitioning into eCommerce and overall companies have been accommodating it's workers to work from anywhere.

Slowly we are travelling down a path where all companies are tech companies. Tech company that makes cars, Uber is a tech company that provides taxi services, and even accounting firms have insights augmenting human abilities.

Moving forward, all companies must embrace IT as an enabler for business. If a CEO wishes to grow a company, they must implement tech systems that will allow said company to scale. Tech has become a pillar for productivity and risk mitigation.

Why are we talking about this today?

First we must understand the thriving digital black market in 2022.

• Credit card details can sell for up to $90.
• iTunes accounts sell for about $8.
• Physical credic cards sell for about $190.
• Card cloners can be purchased for as cheap as $200.
• Fake ATMs can be bought for $35,000.

This is a business. Anyone can easily buy training, tools and services for commiting fraud, hacking systems, buying stolen credit cards, setting up fake websites, and much more.

Understanding Ransomware:

When a business becomes a victim of ransomware, they have a portion of their data stolen and held hostage. This could be vital information for the business itself, confidential information about it's employees or even it's clients. The payment requested by the cybercriminals can range from thousands to millions. This type of crime is very sophisticated and can be relatively easy to execute.

This only happens to big corporations and never small businesses, right?

In fact, one in five small businesses falls victim to cybercrime every year and this number is only growing. Small businesses are an easy target because they don't believe they will be a target and therefore have very loose or no security systems in place. Nearly half of all cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses.

Why don't you hear more about this?

First of all, it is extremely embarrassing to admit you have been hacked. Many businesses don't even know they have been hacked, and it is horrible PR; nobody would like their clients to find out their information was accessed since legal ramifications can be significant. Therefore, most incidents go unreported.

What are you going to do to be a good steward to your client's information?

The solution is to adopt technology as a core of what you do.  It should be weaved it into the fabric of your organization, your processes, your departments. Are you talking to your sales department to see if the CRM serves their needs, are they doing double entry, when a sales person or accountant leaves the organizations, do they continue to have access to download information about your clients?

When designing technology solutions, ensure they’re with the best practice in mind.  Bring in outside consultants when you don’t have core competency internally and specializations are required.  No single IT person or company can have all the skills required and that’s perfectly understandable.

Finally, integrate cybersecurity from bottom up as core part of addressing organizational risk. If there’s one thing COVID-19 has caused is organizational change.  It’s forced the digital transformation of most organizations in one way or another.  From WFH to Zoom meetings, we’ve accepted this change as necessity. Organizations that embraced the opportunity coming out of the pandemic have grown; Others have struggled or are sitting ducks for ransomware.