[Addison West]

In 2020, many new security problems appeared as more people began working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. One big issue was ransomware, where hackers locked up company data and demanded money to unlock it. Phishing was also a big problem, hackers sent fake emails to trick people into giving away passwords or clicking harmful links. Another concern was cloud security, since many companies quickly switched to online systems and didn’t always set them up safely. The SolarWinds attack showed how hackers could break in through software used by many organizations, proving that even trusted vendors could be risky.

To deal with these problems, companies started spending more money on cybersecurity and hired more experts to protect their systems. They began using multi-factor authentication and Zero Trust models, which require people to prove who they are every time they log in. Many also added better tools to find and stop attacks faster and trained employees on how to spot fake emails. Companies improved their patching systems to fix weaknesses quickly and followed new rules about data privacy and breach reporting. Overall, 2020 pushed businesses to take security more seriously and build stronger protections against future cyberattacks.