Stories From the Pandemic... What Have we Learned?

As businesses across the country closed their doors in March 2020, it quickly became clear no Government, business, or individual was truly prepared for the disruption Covid would cause. Businesses and individuals found themselves facing a frightening and confusing time, having to pivot and adjust to the continually changing landscape Covid brought. Whilst Covid was the killer of many businesses, for some, this economic pause allowed for time to reflect on business goals, and many found ways to take advantage of these unique needs brought on by the pandemic.

Looking back at the last two years and some of the stories, good, and bad it seems technology played a huge role in how businesses and individuals dealt with the pandemic, not only financially but also socially. At a time when people have never felt so isolated technology acted as the solution. For businesses, the adoption of tools like Teams and OneDrive allowed colleagues to continue collaborating and communicating in a more streamlined and human way than previously possible when working remotely.

Technology was many people’s saviour, unfortunately, like most things there are negatives and sadly the use of technology throughout the pandemic is no exception. During such a chaotic period and with more remote workers than ever, cyber-crime reached all-time highs. Many businesses never needed to worry too much about their cyber-security, but a sudden necessity to have an online presence left a lot of businesses open to cyber-attacks. The last two years have brought a whole host of success and horror stories, both of which have taught us a lot. In this blog, we’ll highlight stories both good and bad.

Airbnb's Big Turn Around

Being a travel-related business amid a global pandemic is a recipe for disaster. Traveling to neighbouring counties was strongly condemned/restricted and going abroad was virtually impossible. Somewhat unsurprisingly mere months after the start of the pandemic, bookings dropped over 70% and Airbnb’s valuation was cut in half, things were not looking good for the business.

Despite the situation, Airbnb found itself in, they were quick to act. Instantly they cut back nearly $1 billion in marketing costs and slashed executive salaries by half. Additionally, the private equity firm Silver Lake, saw the long-term potential in Airbnb and invested $1 billion, both these things instantly gave the company a $2 billion buoyed.

Whilst there is no ‘good’ way to lay off staff Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky was praised for his humility and sincerity when laying off over 2000 employees. Mr Chesky gave laid-off employees a year of health care, allowed them to keep company laptops, and made a talent directory of departing employees so other employers could tap them as potential employees. As a final priority, Mr Chesky made sure to provide for hosts, and quickly pledged $250 million to help reimburse hosts for cancelled stays and launched a $10 million fund to help them pay their mortgages. Along with keeping the core of the company afloat, this gave Airbnb a lot of good PR.

Airbnb had done all the right things but like any hospitality business, they relied on customers making bookings. Luckily for Airbnb, a hot England summer and the easing of restrictions caused ‘staycations’ to become the new form of holiday and Airbnb saw a record number of pre-bookings nearly doubling the company’s value. Directing efforts into the core business, customer emotions, and employee needs, paired with a cut in costs had put Airbnb in the clear, and despite more lockdowns taking place Airbnb had solidified itself as the holiday app of 2020/2021 and onwards.

How Teams Kept Businesses Connected

Pre-pandemic Microsoft Teams had almost 20 million users, fast forward to the end of 2020 and this has grown to be 115 million active users. So, how did Teams become an essential part of how businesses operated throughout the pandemic?

The pandemic drove the vast majority of our nation’s workforce into remote positions, which increases the demand for reliable cloud-based office products. Since Microsoft 365 was already an incredibly popular option for businesses for apps like Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, SharePoint, and Word to execute critical functions, those organizations already had access to Microsoft Teams. Schools were also offered no-cost versions specifically for education making it the obvious choice for schools.

For most businesses Teams was the obvious choice as it was the path of least resistance since it could be deployed and distributed quickly with native file sharing across other Microsoft products that were already being used. For a lot of businesses remote work was not something they accounted for, and without clear communication between colleagues’ business operations could quickly fall apart. Therefore the ‘Teams Meetings’ became the new norm, some businesses held weekly catchups and occasional smaller team meetings, whilst others adopted a daily meeting strategy to keep colleagues connected. Whether it was a couple of times a month or every day, almost all of us found ourselves using teams to efficiently work, and for good reason.

Cyber-Criminals Took Advantage

Technology during the pandemic helped countless businesses and brought people together even when miles apart, but unfortunately this unprecedented increase in online presence within companies did not come without its negatives. Throughout the pandemic cyber-criminals ransomed millions of dollars from businesses, using time-tested tactics like phishing, social engineering, and other hacker tools. It quickly became clear we are our own biggest security risk.

The sudden shift to remote working gave cyber-criminals a massive pool of new victims as many employees were now working from home using insecure smartphones and computers. These criminals were looking to capitalize on the stress and anxiety of the pandemic, with a quote from Verizon Chief Information Security Officer Nasrin Rezai stating “Cyber-Criminals Shifted their techniques to target employees through Covid-themed phishing and social engineering campaigns”.

For employees used to working in the office, suddenly being moved to the comfort of their own homemade it is extremely easy for them to lower their guard. These attacks consisted of emails attempting to hoax the victim into clicking a link or giving information usually designed to look like a reputable company, these attacks saw a 73% increase during the pandemic. With 95% of data breaches caused by human error companies quickly learned that their weakest security link was their employees. Luckily there is a silver lining, the increase in breaches and attacks brought a lot of attention to the subject and as a result, cyber-security training became a must in most businesses.

The Anti-Cyber-Crime Initiative

Following on from our last point, but on a more positive note, after attacks designed to block access to schools’ networks and websites more than doubled during the pandemic, a new initiative was launched to help divert young people away from cyber-crime. A study conducted by the National Crime agency’s National Cyber Crime (NCA) Unit Shows there was a 107% increase in reports from the ‘police cyber prevent network’ of students as young as nine deploying DDoS attacks from 2019 to 2020.

In this digital age, it's easy to access guides on DDoSing and other cyber-crimes, and young people may be naive to the consequences these attacks can have. To combat this the NCA partnered with schools to launch a new initiative aimed to educate students who search for terms associated with cyber-crime on school computers. Instead of simply reaching a denied ‘block’ page like most unauthorized websites, students would instead see a warning message and were redirected to the Cyber Choices website, which aims to educate children of all ages about the Computer Misuse Act, cyber-crime, and its consequences.

After being put in place by an excess of 2000 primary and secondary schools, there has been a significant reduction in DDoS and Cyber-crime searches. Damian Hinds, Security Minister reflects on the success of this initiative with him saying “It’s great to see cooperation between law enforcement and the private sector in delivering important initiatives like this one to prevent students from getting involved in cybercrime”. Additionally, Damian understood the importance of educating future generations on the dangers of cyber-crime with a quote stating, “If we can educate children and inform them that these activities are dangerous and can result in criminal prosecution, we can potentially prevent a future cyber-criminal.”.

Put The Right Tools in Place

Whilst technology in some cases was used as a weapon to attack unsuspecting first-time remote workers, it also played a big part in how we dealt with the problems brought on by the pandemic. Applications like Teams and OneDrive allowed businesses to successfully continue running operations, and initiatives like the NCA’s Cyber-Crime awareness helped educate young people on the risks and consequences associated with Cyber-Crime.

Whilst the pandemic has come to end the tools used to see us through it are here to stay. Some businesses struggled through the pandemic because they didn’t adopt the right solutions and applications. If you feel your business has been struggling since the pandemic, or are worried your cyber-security isn’t strong enough it’s not too late to introduce the Right solutions to your business. The entrust IT groups have had years of experience working with small and large companies putting the right technological solutions in place that help them get through difficult times.

If you feel your business would benefit from partnering with a trusted Multi-service provider like entrust IT, please feel free to get in contact on 0330 002 0045 or email enquires@entrustit.co.uk.