Cyber resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis: A case study

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis around the world and the resulting unprecedented measures taken by governments required organizations to quickly adopt new ways of (remotely) working. At face value, this would suggest a higher vulnerability for cyber threats. This research note analyses how a global financial institution dealt with this challenge by using Hollnagel's four abilities for resilient performance as a theoretical lens. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with eleven key actors were conducted. Three findings stand out. First, the interviews suggest that the organization performed cyber resiliently in the sense that the number of incidents and impact were not significantly higher. Second, the interviews show that all four abilities of resilience were formally developed prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, but rarely resulted in anticipatory adjustment. Third, the interviews indicate that the ability to respond contributed most to the organization's cyber resilience during the pandemic crisis. To conclude, our research note raises the question to what extent the four potentials should be developed beforehand in order to perform resiliently during crises.