Cybersecurity in the COVID-19 Pandemic

As the 2020 global lockdown became a universal strategy to control the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing triggered a massive reliance on online and cyberspace alternatives and switched the world to the digital economy. Despite their effectiveness for remote work and online interactions, cyberspace alternatives ignited several Cybersecurity challenges. Malicious hackers capitalized on global anxiety and launched cyberattacks against unsuspecting victims. Internet fraudsters exploited human and system vulnerabilities and impacted data integrity, privacy, and digital behaviour.

Cybersecurity in the COVID-19 Pandemic demystifies Cybersecurity concepts using real-world cybercrime incidents from the pandemic to illustrate how threat actors perpetrated computer fraud against valuable information assets particularly healthcare, financial, commercial, travel, academic, and social networking data. The book simplifies the socio-technical aspects of Cybersecurity and draws valuable lessons from the impacts COVID-19 cyberattacks exerted on computer networks, online portals, and databases. The book also predicts the fusion of Cybersecurity into Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics, the two emerging domains that will potentially dominate and redefine post-pandemic Cybersecurity research and innovations between 2021 and 2025.

The book's primary audience is individual and corporate cyberspace consumers across all professions intending to update their Cybersecurity knowledge for detecting, preventing, responding to, and recovering from computer crimes. Cybersecurity in the COVID-19 Pandemic is ideal for information officers, data managers, business and risk administrators, technology scholars, Cybersecurity experts and researchers, and information technology practitioners. Readers will draw lessons for protecting their digital assets from email phishing fraud, social engineering scams, malware campaigns, and website hijacks.

Kenneth Okereafor is Deputy General Manager responsible for Database Security at the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Nigeria. He is a United Nations trained Cybersecurity and Biometric expert with 24 years' ICT experience spanning industry, government, and academia. He has specialized skills in Threat Mitigation Technologies for preventing, detecting, and responding to Cyberattacks. He is a member of the International Organization for Standardization's Technical Committee on Health Informatics (ISO-TC-215), and he chairs ISO's Security and Privacy Working Group-4 in Nigeria developing Cybersecurity standards for digital health.
Kenneth was a key member in developing Nigeria's eHealth Strategic Framework (2015-2020) in collaboration with the WHO and UN Foundation. Prior to joining NHIS in 2013, he had extensive data security work experience in telecoms, diplomatic relations, and public sector including the US Department of State where he supported the Biometric security rollout for personnel at the US Embassy in Nigeria.
In addition to advanced Cybersecurity training by ITU, UNESCO, SANS Institute, EC Council, and ISACA, Kenneth holds a PhD in Cybersecurity from Azteca University Mexico, where his research in Biometric Security resulted in the Multi-Modal Random Trait Biometric Liveness Detection System (MMRTBLDS), a framework that improves biometric authentication by diminishing imposter predictability. He graduated cum laude and obtained an MSc in Network Security and BSc in Computer Information Systems from American Heritage University of Southern California, and has a first class background in Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering.
His research interests centre on Global Cybersecurity, Incident Response, Cyberattack Prevention and Mitigation, Biometric Security, Threat Intelligence, eHealth Security, Telemedicine, and Digital Identities.