This blog has been updated. Read the latest version here: 5 Business cybersecurity predictions for 2022

The year 2020 was an unprecedented one due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses in Southern California and around the globe had to stop operations, while others were forced to shift to a work from home setup.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced a lot of businesses in Southern California to switch to a work from home setup. And with the new stay at home orders issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom, people will have to wait a while longer before they can go back to working in a normal office setting.

Your company's documents, be they physical or digital, are constantly exposed to various threats as they are shared using a variety of mediums such as flash drives, email, and the cloud. Research shows that an average business shares its documents with around 826 external domains.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, businesses in Southern California and everywhere else in the world were forced to either temporarily halt operations or switch to a remote work setup. Those who had to shut down temporarily suffered massive financial losses, which led to most of them filing for bankruptcy.

Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) is a productivity suite that includes an online version of Office as well as several powerful cloud solutions like SharePoint and Exchange. Because it's hosted on the cloud, Microsoft 365 eliminates infrastructure support costs and maintenance tasks such as software patching.

Businesses struggle with cybersecurity threats daily, and with the lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, security experts are seeing an alarming rise in ransomware attacks. In fact, ransomware attacks rose by as much as 143% in March 2020. The spike can be attributed to businesses switching to a work from home setup as well as an increase in online transactions.

Imagine not having a lock on your door. It's an open invitation for thieves to break into your home and steal your valuable possessions. Having a lock on your door provides one layer of security that burglars have to go through before they can enter your home.

Data breaches caused by malicious attacks not only disrupt your company's operations, but it also leads to financial loss. According to IBM Security's Cost of a Data Breach Report 2020, the average cost of data breaches in the United States is $8.64 million.

Cybercriminals have been using phishing scams since the early 1990s, and phishing has remained their preferred method of stealing personal and financial information to this day. Although businesses nowadays implement cybersecurity measures and best practices to avoid falling prey to phishing emails, some still do get victimized.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has become a reliable communication platform for many small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) because of the wide array of benefits it offers. However, just like any other type of modern technology, VoIP systems are not immune from being exploited by cybercriminals looking to steal users’ private data for financial gain.