Grim Projections for Cybersecurity Worsened by Pandemic Before COVID-19 swept the globe, experts were already predicting a disastrous year in cybersecurity. The pandemic offered hackers new attack vectors and proved governments must always be ready for the unexpected. Lucas Ropek, Government Technology | December 15, 2020 | Analysis In March, the Cyberspace Solarium Commission asked Americans to consider the possibility of a disastrous cyberattack, a kind of “cyber Pearl Harbor,” that turned the nation’s infrastructure on its head. The commission, convened by Congress in 2019 to study the threats that lurk in cyberspace, was not optimistic about the nation’s capacity to defend against such an event. Their report, at nearly 200 pages, was filled with analysis and policy proposals, but its basic message was simple: The U.S. was “dangerously insecure in cyber.”