March 2021

There’s no doubt COVID-19 changed the digital landscape. Overnight businesses turned digital to survive. With many organisations forced into new ways of working in 2020, cybercriminals were able to take advantage of insecure networks much more frequently. In the first lockdown, the UK saw a 31 per cent increase in cyberattacks. A combination of human and bot attacks led to heightened attack rates, significant spikes in fraud attempts and greater volatility.

COVID-status certifications – more commonly referred to as vaccine passports – could offer us a chance of returning to our ‘normal’ lives much sooner than first anticipated, but the discussions surrounding potential certifications remain heated. Naturally, the prospect of being able to attend mass gatherings and travel freely is appealing to many, providing an added incentive to accept a COVID-19 vaccine, but for others that’s exactly where the problem lies – in the promise of ‘freedom’.