Covid-19: New Catalyst for Cyber Security Transformation to Protect Financial Processes

In this blog, we highlight critical shifts that enterprises need to make in COVID-19 times and define navigation beacons for enterprises to adopt change and plan for what comes next in the area of cyber security.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt global health, economic, political and social systems, there's another unseen threat rising in the digital space: the rise of cyberattacks that prey on our increased reliance on digital tools, which do not meet the security requirements to prevent these threats. The World Economic Forum explains why cyber security matters more than ever during this Carona Virus pandemic and the strategies to combat it:

• The COVID-19 pandemic poses the risk of increased cyberattacks
• Hackers are targeting people's increased dependence on digital tools
• Maintain good cyber hygiene by verifying sources and staying up-to-date on official updates

According to a Threatpost webinar, the direct impact of the Coronavirus is a wide quarantine policy that compels organizations to require that their employees work from home in order to prevent the spread of infection. This inevitably entails shifting a significant portion of the workload to be carried out remotely, introducing an exploitable opportunity for attackers.Weaponized documents and malicious links in emails are a couple of examples of these types of cyberattacks. The new data reveals that the Coronavirus now has a significant impact on information security and that the crisis is actively exploited by threat actors. 

The opportunity attackers see, is the mass use of remote login credentials to organizational resources that far exceed the norm. As a result, remote connections are established by employees and devices that have never been connected before, meaning that an attacker could easily conceal a malicious login without being detected by the target organization’s security team. Therefore, taking robust cybersecurity measures is equally important in these data sensitive and threat prone times.

Furthermore, in an interesting article, Nielsen confirms that with millions working from home and digital connectivity taking even more of a hold on everyday habits, consumers will have greater motivations and fewer perceived barriers to more actively seek technology-enabled solutions to assist in everyday tasks like shopping. Companies that can leverage technologies—by meeting changing consumer demands online, enabling seamless interactions through direct-to-consumer offerings and enhancing consumer experience with augmented and virtual realities—have the opportunity to earn consumer loyalty well after consumers’ concerns subside. It will be imperative to have cybersecurity prevention measures in place to continue to earn customer’s trust and business.

Preparing for a technology-enabled future

As the implications for consumers multiply, new learnings for retailers and manufacturers become evident. Progression in technology usage may start with the basic functionality offered by smartphones such as product discovery and mobile payments. As consumers become more comfortable with these tools, further advancements like auto-subscriptions and personalized location alerts will change the way consumers buy and speed up the adoption trajectory of more sophisticated tools like A/VR. And these will start to become more widespread as consumers recognize the advantages they can bring both in convenience and experience. Technology will be one of the most significant game changers for FMCG retailers and manufacturers as well as B2B players in the immediate and longer term. Keeping these technologies safe and free from cyberattacks is critical. 

Thus changing and expanding on your business model to serve your customers better is the only constant in these times. And keeping in line with the demands of today, RecVue recommends safeguarding both your billing and revenue recognition automation capabilities, as well as tightening your cyber security protocols to make your organization future ready. Only RecVue delivers a next generation order-to-cash automation platform built on big data, designed specifically to address the unique challenges of managing recurring revenue. RecVue’s solution includes data mediation tuned to support high volumes of transactions, a 360 view into the entire contract lifecycle, attribute-based pricing, complete billing-to-invoice capabilities, partner management, and robust analytics and reporting. Make yourself future ready today!

Contact us to learn how the RecVue platform can provide agility and smoother revenue streams, enabling your organization to improve your order-to-cash processes.