Heading into 2020 no one could have predicted how a then-unknown new coronavirus would cripple global business, as it has now. In this unprecedented fight against COVID-19, digital technologies offer the only opportunity for governments, individuals and businesses to cope with the effects of social distancing, ensure business continuity, and prevent service interruptions.
Amid a crisis, it is important for organizations to identify where and when potential hot spots may arise. Risks stemming from COVID-19 in terms of geographies, customers, suppliers, business lines and other valuable company assets must be accounted for to provide clarity and visibility in a response.
IT systems may be going through unprecedented remote access and usage, creating high threat levels and vulnerabilities for fresh cybersecurity issues to emerge. With business systems and processes so intertwined, an incident inside a supplier’s system can greatly impact outside organizations associated with it. Due to this, the velocity of an organization’s response is key to their ability to overcome a crisis. Once the proper hot spots have been identified, having a system in place to assess risk and coordinate with the appropriate parties can guide companies safely through the storm.
Cybersecurity Risk
The Covid-19 pandemic has not come without its own set of unique cyber-threats for organisations to content with. Social engineering attacks have surged as attackers are taking advantage of panicky victims to steal information while posing as Covid-19 health workers.
Attackers are also keenly aware that organisations are scrambling to continue operations as close to normal as possible and looking to tools like remote connections and mobile technologies to promote business continuity. It is no secret that those platforms invariably have become prime hunting grounds for cyber attackers.
The Chinese government cybersecurity agency, National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team and Coordination Center of China (CNCERT) recorded that new cybersecurity threats have elevated amidst the pandemic with a 131 per cent increase in viruses detected in March this year compared to the same month last year.
It is crucial that an organisation’s cyber-space in the cyber ecosystem it operates in be viciously protected. A security framework must be in place to guide the security protocols implemented. The choice of technologies must be vetted with security as a top priority with the boardroom’s attention.
Cyber-security awareness in the workforce must now be at an all-time high and pursued aggressively to protect company data. In many instances, a cyber-security breach can cost the organisation significantly more money than scaling down operations until robust and revolving cyber-security can be guaranteed. The security framework must be operationalised in tandem with risk management practice.
Disaster Recovery, IT Governance
By any measure, the Covid-19 pandemic is a disaster. A thorough Disaster Recovery (DR) plan must be in place to coordinate how all the previous aspects are executed (business communications and processing, technology platforms in use and security measures). This of course would sit under a larger business continuity plan.
A DR committee must be charged to declare a disaster, activate and execute disaster protocols, give relevant feedback to management of the organisation, and be keenly aware of all elevation and de-escalation triggers in the COVID-19 induced IT disaster. A thorough IT Governance framework would dictate where decisions would be made and by whom to ensure transparent and effective accountability.
The goal remains to produce or induce desirable IT systems use before, especially during, and after the disaster period. In other words, the 4IR has positioned 4IR-ready organisations to withstand the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This has been setup, albeit unintended, via pursuits of digital transformation and thorough IT governance practice. Armed with these tools, IT has a lot to offer the organisation during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mobile Technology
Mobile technology is technology that goes where the user goes. It consists of portable two-way communications devices, computing devices and the networking technology that connects them and it has been dubbed the next big thing in enabling the organisation to move with speed and agility in the market.
The mobile technology started as a remarkable achievement in the world of technology but now, it is transforming into user comfort technology due to its present diverse functionality.
In the Covid-19 pandemic era, it has fast become the only means to conduct business. The C-Suite still require their dashboards, sales teams still need to sell, finance teams still need to crunch numbers and share reports, emails still need to be sent and received. Though some professionals argue with the trend that the future of computer technology is rest on wireless networking and mobile computing. Mobile technology through tablet and portable computers are becoming more and more popular.
Mobile technology is pervasive and growing. The number of smartphone users has climbed beyond 3 billion and the global mobile workforce is expected to reach 1.87 billion by 2022. Tablets, phones and other mobile devices are taking up more responsibility in ensuring business information flows seamlessly without hindrance.
Digital Transformation
When one speaks of digital transformation or capability, the relevant pillars to what we are facing now are;
- Having a digitised environment: This is where most of the operations of the business are being run on computer systems (automated ERP processing etc) in close consultation with management for business requirements;
- Having a digitised employee experience: Employees are empowered with access to technology and platforms to conduct business on behalf of or within the organisation in a strictly digital environment.
- The data-led approach: Drawing insights and decision support information from real-time digital business information systems allowing the organisation to strategize and approach its market in a more targeted manner.
With a digitally ready environment and workforce; collaboration, teleconferencing and chat platforms are available to plug in the gap cause by the need for social distancing and achieve equally effective internal and external business communication. Think Zoom/WebEx/Microsoft teams etc. In fact, across the world, vendors of these technologies (e.g. Microsoft and Google) have begun offering these platforms to organisations for free and its pleasing to note that many organizations have embraced the use of these various virtual platforms during this Covid 19 crisis to conduct their meetings and webinars.
If key employees are self-quarantining, or the organisation has taken the work-from-home route, the IT department must ensure that via remote connections the same platforms are securely accessible and do not disrupt the organisation’s day-to-day proceedings.
In a nutshell, beyond the immediate and short-term responses to the crisis, recognition of the power of digital technologies to enable and enhance essential services and social cohesion remotely and effectively, must bring a new urgency to the digital inclusion agenda of organisations and governments worldwide. It is critical for every company to prepare and invest for future events as there will always be another natural or man-made crisis down the road. Preparedness, in part, helps eliminate panic. The good news is that there is, and will be, growth beyond the crisis.
