Cyberwatching assets for SMEs against the Cybersecurity challenges raised by COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many SMEs to implement a quick transition to a more digitalised workflow. This rapid and, in many cases, involuntary modernisation of small and medium companies obviously carries with it also many cybersecurity risks. Indeed, while the world is focused on the health and economic threats posed by COVID-19, cyber criminals around the world are capitalizing on this crisis: for example, an increase in phishing attacks, malware and ransomware attacks which are using COVID-19 as bait to impersonate brands and mislead employees and customers has been reported.

It is therefore fundamental for SMEs to increase their knowledge of the cybersecurity area, as their unpreparedness can easily lead to the exposure of sensitive information on the internet and the loss of critical assets, also causing brand damage.

Cyberwatching.eu provides a number of resources which SMEs could benefit from, particularly in the current situation where cybersecurity skills are more needed than ever.

One of them is the Cybersecurity self-assessment for SMEs designed with the specific goal of helping companies’ staff to increase their awareness about basic cybersecurity concepts and implement the best practices in order to avoid being victims of a cyber-attack. This simple and quick online self-assessment, launched by 4 Cybersecurity research projects funded by the European Commission (Cyberwatching.eu, CyberSec4Europe, CYBERWISER.eu and SMESEC), allows SMEs to easily understand where they stand in terms of cybersecurity practices implementation and learn some basic security guidelines to be applied in their day-to-day routine.

Another cyberwatching.eu resource that can help companies to better understand how to deal with the processing of personal data in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak is the GDPR Temperature Tool. This instrument helps European SMEs to understand how much they comply with the General Data Protection Regulation that came into force in May 2018, and to assess their potential “risk exposure to sanctions”, according to the responses provided.

Cyberwatching.eu also provides some SMEs guides which can be extremely useful for companies during the current situation. The guides focus on different aspects of cybersecurity, such as the cost of Cyber Insurance and Cyber-risk Management, allowing SMEs to take the first ‘beginner’ steps in order to build their cyber resilience and secure their digital assets.

In addition, cyberwatching.eu hosts a marketplace, which is a compendium of products and solutions showcasing innovation in cybersecurity from European projects, SMEs and the world of research. Among the wide range of products listed, there are a number which can be useful for SMES in order to increase their cybersecurity awareness. These are listed below:

• CANVAS MOOC: The Massive Open Online Course is an overview of the central principles and challenges in the fields of cyber security, privacy and trust.
• Training on the GDPR by GRUPO CFI: This online course, held in Spanish, deals with all the requirements and obligations established by the General Regulation of Data Protection of Europe (GDPR).
• Clym: This platform is a solution for global privacy needs, which allows the management of cookies, policies, procedures, terms & data subjects' requests while automatically building evidence through consent receipts.
• Ethical Hacking Services by Shorr Kan IT Engineering S.r.L.: This provides penetration test services, simulating cyber security attacks.
• Security Advisory service by @Mediaservice.net: This provides Analysis & Testing, assessing the level of safety of a defined area, and Compliance & Governance, improving safety management, and ensuring compliance with laws and market standards.
• Consulting services by BL4CKSWAN SRL: This offers four kinds of services: support with advice or directly managing the certification process, risk control, training, and frontier security.
• OPERANDO PlusPrivacy: This provides a unified dashboard for protecting the users from a variety of privacy threats.
• Cyberwiser Essential: This service provides a comprehensive evaluation of cyber risk, based on both technical and business aspects.
• H-PREDICTIVE PLATFORM:  This merges digital twins and adversary simulation to anticipate attacks and manage risk in an ICT infrastructure, through a lifelong continuous process of assessment and adjustment.

You can find more useful solutions addressing cybersecurity challenges in our marketplace.