Cyber security and COVID-19

When the full impact of COVID-19 became apparent, Telenor realised that cybersecurity risks were rapidly changing. There were frequent reports of threat actors and cybercriminals taking advantage of COVID-19 as part of cyberattacks and fraud, and at the same time new vulnerabilities affecting both our employees and customers appeared as people were finding new ways of work in order to manage working from home. In response to this, close attention to security awareness and practical guidelines for security was required.

As the guidelines are equally important for our external stakeholder and customers, we shared our top seven pieces of advice publicly in this article:

Cybercriminals love COVID-19: Here’s how to stay cyber-secure

A security transformation is by no means done overnight, and our cybersecurity responses to COVID-19 would not be possible without several years of dedicated and intense efforts and investments in security globally in all Telenor business units. This includes, for example, our Defendable Architecture concept for security critical assets, our “One Security” cybersecurity operating model with a global way of work supported by global capabilities, our guidelines for security operations, our approach to security training and awareness, and our approaches to telecommunications fraud and physical security.

Observing the interest in cybersecurity amongst our customers, and building on a tradition of sharing knowledge and experience within the security profession, we have decided to share more in-depth security content – primarily aimed at other businesses and professionals. The purpose of this is to make our practical experiences available in order to help implement good security measures across industries – empowering societies in the joint fight against cybercrime.

In the coming weeks, we will share several articles on cybersecurity topics written by our subject matter expert – centered on our approach to defendable architecture. Stay tuned!

André Årnes, PhD, SVP and Chief Security Officer, Telenor Group