Cybersecurity in the Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic (beginning early 2020) triggered a rapid and unprecedented global shift to remote work, telehealth, online education, and digital commerce. This shift expanded the attack surface for cybercriminals, accelerated adoption of cloud and collaboration tools, and exposed gaps in organizational preparedness. This paper synthesizes empirical reports and peer-reviewed literature to describe the major cyber threats observed during the pandemic, their impacts (with emphasis on healthcare and critical infrastructure), and effective technical, organizational, and policy mitigations.