Cyberattacks and threats during COVID-19: A systematic literature review

South African Journal of Information Management

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Cyberattacks and threats during COVID-19: A systematic literature review
 
Creator Chigada, Joel Madzinga, Rujeko
 
Subject Information Systems Security cyberattacks; cyberthreats; COVID-19; information systems vulnerabilities; cybersecurity.
Description Background: The novel Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a deadly contagious disease has left the global village in disarray, driving people and firms, especially healthcare service providers to rely heavily on information communication technologies (ICTs) for administering telemedicine through digital tools. This study contributes to knowledge and information sharing and debates on cybersecurity.Objective: The objective was to analyse the impact of cybercrimes on the global economy at a time when the whole world is focused on fighting and minimising the spread of COVID-19. The study also analysed common cybersecurity threats, attacks and information systems security vulnerabilities during the period of the pandemic.Method: The study adopted a systematic literature review from December 2019 to June 2020. There are global research studies on cybersecurity issues brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, and therefore, literature survey was not limited to any geographic area. A mixed method research was adopted in this study.Results: The study revealed that there is an exponential growth of cyberattacks and threats because the global economy has been paying much attention to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, large corporations, healthcare industry and government agencies have been targets for cyberattacks and threats.Conclusion: It has been demonstrated that cyberattacks and threats during the COVID-19 pandemic are rising exponentially, creating another wave of challenges for the global economy, which is already reeling under the novel coronavirus. Thus, exerting excessive pressure on financial and human resources that have to contend with the novel coronavirus, with the expectation that resources have to be mobilised to deal with cybercrimes. The study recommends that firms and individuals should devise cybersecurity interventions to protect their data and information systems infrastructure.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor n/a
Date 2021-02-19
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Systematic literature review
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajim.v23i1.1277
 
Source SA Journal of Information Management; Vol 23, No 1 (2021); 11 pages 1560-683X 2078-1865
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/1277/1881 https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/1277/1880 https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/1277/1882 https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/1277/1879
 
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Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Joel Chigada, Rujeko Madzinga https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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