The recent pandemic has confirmed that cybersecurity is a “must have” for internet users and companies today. With millions of people working from home during shelter-in-place orders, businesses across the nation have had their security networks tested by phishing emails and other malware scams.

The numbers are alarming —- the FBI’s Internet Crime Centers have received and reviewed more than 3,600 coronavirus-related complaints, and the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre has taken down 2,000 online coronavirus scams and has identified more than 2,000 malicious new web domains related to the virus. When it comes to cybersecurity needs during and after the pandemic, can artificial intelligence tools be the next big thing for ensuring your data is safe?

Better Safe Than Sorry

With the cybersecurity industry constantly evolving, it’s important that your business follows new innovations to make sure your data remains secure. In not staying up-to-date on current and future trends in cybersecurity and encryption, your company may face serious consequences.

Cybersecurity typically isn’t a big concern for small business owners. On average, these businesses spend less than $500 on cybersecurity products and usually choose consumer-grade security solutions. However, the reality is that many small companies end up on the receiving end of ransomware and other hacks. According to the Insurance Information Institute, one in 10 small businesses suffer from a cyberattack each year.

While you may not spend a large amount of money on cybersecurity, cyberattacks are projected to result in $6 trillion in damages by 2021, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. Recovering from an incident could cost your small business more money than it would cost to purchase high level security solutions such as firewalls, antivirus software or cybersecurity insurance.

The Next Big Thing

Over and over, we’ve seen the frightening numbers associated with cyberthreats and their impact on small and large companies. As hackers’ methods continue to evolve, security systems and how they are designed must also transition in order to keep up.

According to Forbes, overall, security is going to become more customizable and practice smarter solutions. Shifting away from its reliance on a one-size-fits-all model, security will move toward more intelligent and informative solutions that can be tailored to better engage, protect and serve particular industry ecosystems.

These new models are likely to include artificial intelligence. Security tools will use AI to identify anomalies and potential breaches and then quickly work to protect small and large data files from hackers. AI will also be used to integrate self-contained tools —- communication tools with built-in privacy —- so that company information can be kept within the company borders.

The next era of cybersecurity will be more focused on protecting the people behind the screen -not just the networks and devices they use. Businesses need to take a human-centric approach to cybersecurity through creating additional resources to educate their staff and decrease breaches caused by human error. As we move forward, we will see cybersecurity go mainstream from the ground up.

MDL Technology Is Here To Help

Being a cognizant cybercitizen means staying up-to-date with the current and future trends of cybersecurity. Educating yourself and your team members on cybersecurity best practices, putting multi-layered protection systems with firewalls and antivirus software in place and creating an incident response and disaster recovery plan are small steps you can do to prevent your company from being the next target of an attack.

Your company’s security is our top priority. We offer services such as 24/7 support, network monitoring, offsite data backups, auditing and compliance and more to help ensure that you don’t need to stress about your team’s private information becoming public.

Learn more about the services we offer by visiting our website.