The influence of COVID-19 outbreak on the readiness of firms to cyber threats

Technology impacted the lives of millions of people with their home day-to-day activities. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in many countries, there was a need to change both the mode of working with technology as well as to handle internet and online risks exposure. During the pandemic, cybercrime groups utilized the internet usage to commit cybercrimes especially by exploiting vulnerabilities of many applications, networks, and infrastructures. This study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the readiness of organizations to handle cyber threats in two directions: 1) analysis of CVE common vulnerability data before and during the pandemic period and 2) analysis of fuzzy logic data model designed to demonstrate the importance of firms readiness to cope with cyber threats. Results show that due to the significant increase in cyber threats, small firms tend to be more fragile to cyber threats than big ones, and they have to invest more resources to mitigate cyber threats. Findings and implications are discussed.