As state government officials plead for more cybersecurity funding in the next federal stimulus package, experts said Wednesday there’s more that local officials can do to aid small businesses still searching for help in securing their financial systems and remote workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that coronavirus-related cyberthreats are only just beginning.
While COVID-19 has forced millions of small businesses to close physical locations, the rapid pace of coronavirus relief funding and the time it takes for businesses to launch online payment processes has protected them from a wave of cybersecurity exploitations, according to Josh Belk, the executive director of the Los Angeles Cyber Lab, a nonprofit organization that provides free cybersecurity assistance to the city’s small and medium-sized businesses.
