Implications of COVID-19 And The CARES Act – ASC 740 Income Taxes

Companies and individuals currently find themselves in unchartered territory as the world responds to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The implications of COVID-19 are having a direct impact on many people, for which the health and well-being of individuals and their families are paramount. In addition, companies are also being forced to deal with the ramifications of this pandemic on their businesses. To react to these challenges, governments around the world have been responding to COVID-19 in various ways, including enacting economic stimulus packages.
 
In the United States, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act)[1] was enacted into law on March 27, 2020, to respond to the economic challenges many are facing due to COVID-19. The CARES Act includes several business provisions that may impact a company’s accounting for income taxes. In addition, the impact of COVID-19 itself on businesses draws attention to certain provisions in ASC 740.
 
This alert will highlight observations and insights from an ASC 740 perspective that companies should consider as they confront these challenges to their businesses.


Change in Tax Law – CARES Act

President Trump signed into law the CARES Act on March 27, 2020, making this a Q1 event for calendar year companies. ASC 740 requires that an entity must recognize the effect of a change in tax law or rates in the period that includes the date of enactment.[2] The business provisions in the CARES Act need to be analyzed and the estimated impact of those provisions recorded as part of continuing operations during the quarter.
 

Modification for Net Operating Losses – Interim Reporting

The CARES Act provides for a five-year carryback of net operating losses generated in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017, and before January 1, 2021.[3] As many companies now face a strain on their cash flow, the benefit from a carryback of a loss to a prior period will help with cash flow when taxes paid in prior years are refunded.
 
For net operating losses generated or utilized during this period, the 80% taxable income limitation for net operating losses will not apply, including losses carried back. It should be noted, however, that the 80% limitation on the usage of net operating losses is reinstated for years beginning after December 31, 2020.
 
Companies can elect, on a year-by-year basis, to forgo a carryback for 2018, 2019 and 2020 losses. In addition, an election under IRC Section 965(n)[4] will automatically be deemed to have been made to a Transition Tax period unless an election is made to exclude the Transition Tax year from a carryback claim. In addition, the CARES Act included a technical correction so that carryback and carryforward provisions apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017. Lastly, losses that are carried forward from these years continue to be carried forward indefinitely.
 
For interim reporting purposes, companies may need to consider:

  1. Any current tax benefit for 2020 losses that are expected to be carried back to prior years would be part of the company’s annual effective tax rate (AETR) calculation, including the potential benefit related to different tax rates (35% vs. 21%).
  2. Any current tax benefit from the carryback of 2019 and 2018 losses, including the potential benefit related to different tax rates (35% vs. 21%), would generally be recorded discretely in the quarter.
  3. A company recognizes a change in the valuation allowance in an interim period through its estimate of the annual effective tax rate if the change relates to either (a) deferred tax assets originating during the year or (b) deferred tax assets existing at the beginning of the year that are expected to be realized as a result of current year ordinary income.[5]


A company recognizes a change in the valuation allowance discretely in the interim period if the change relates to deferred tax assets existing at the beginning of the year that are expected to be realized in future years.[6]

Example – Current Year Loss Expected to be Carried Back

Facts:

  • Federal tax rate is 35% for 2015, 2016, and 2017 and 21% for 2018 and 2019
  • Calendar year company – Q1 2020
  • Forecasted ordinary loss in 2020 of 500K
  • Loss is carried back in full to 2015-2019
  • No valuation allowance at beginning or end of the year
  • Entity has one temporary difference for definite-lived book intangible assets
  • State taxes ignored for simplicity
  Deferred Tax Asset
(Deferred Tax Liability)
Deferred Tax Asset (Deferred Tax Liability) Deferred Tax
 1-Jan-2031-Dec-20 Expense(benefit)
    
Intangible assets(300.00)(200.00) 
Tax effected(63.00)(42.00)(21.00)
    
Current tax expense   
Current year ordinary loss (500.00) 
Reverse book intangible amortization 100.00 
Forecasted taxable loss (400.00) 
    
Carryback to:   Tax Effect
2015 100.00(35.00)
2016 200.00(70.00)
2018 100.00(21.00)
Current tax expense (benefit) 400.00(126.00)
Deferred tax expense (benefit)  (21.00)
Total tax expense (benefit)  (147.00)
Effective Tax Rate  29.40%


The effective tax rate is higher than expected due to the carryback of the loss to 35% years in 2015 and 2016. For Q1 interim period, the AETR is 29% since the benefit relates to benefit from the current year loss.

The carryback of losses to prior tax years, including pre-TCJA[7] tax years, creates additional computational challenges. These include the effects of indirect impacts of carrybacks on prior year calculations, including, but not limited to, the former Domestic Production Activity Deduction, the IRC Section 250 deduction, and Uncertain Tax Positions. It would be expected that these indirect impacts due to 2020 losses carried back would be recorded as part of the 2020 AETR calculation. The indirect impacts from the carryback of 2018 and 2019 losses would be expected to be recorded discretely in the quarter.
 
The carryback of losses may “free up” credits that were otherwise used to reduce taxes in the carryback years. Such credits may be carried back or forward under the prevailing tax law. If some or all the credits can only be carried forward, consideration should be given to whether such carryforwards are realizable.
 
The carryback of losses on Form 1139[8] may re-open the statute of limitations for an otherwise closed year.[9] In such situations, consideration should be given to the recognition of a prior year uncertain tax position that had previously been reduced due to closure of the statute of limitations. In these instances, required disclosure on Schedule UTP (Uncertain Tax Position Statement) may also be impacted.
 

Modification of Limitation on Business Interest – Interim Reporting

The CARES Act provides for the relaxation of the limitation of adjusted taxable income (ATI) as determined under IRC Section 163(j) from 30% to 50% when determining the deduction for business interest expense for the 2019 and 2020 periods.[10] Further, for any taxable year beginning in 2020, a taxpayer may elect to substitute the ATI for the last taxable year beginning in 2019 for the 2020 ATI limitation calculation.
 
From an ASC 740 perspective, companies may need to consider:

  1. Any increased deduction for interest in 2020 periods due to 50% limit would be recorded as part of the AETR calculation.
  2. Any increased deduction for interest in 2019 periods due to 50% limit would be recorded discretely in the quarter.


In the case of partnerships, the increased IRC Section 163(j) limit from 30% to 50% of ATI does not apply to taxable years beginning in 2019, but rather it applies to taxable years beginning in 2020. In addition, 50% of any excess interest expense at the end of 2019 is deemed deductible in 2020. The remainder is subject to the provisions of IRC Section 163(j).

Example – 2020 projected with partnership interest and loss and excess interest deductions
Company X, a U.S. corporation, conducts a significant part of its business in a partnership, PRS, in which it owns a 90% interest and is consolidated for financial reporting purposes. X has been allocated excess interest deductions since IRC Section 163(j) became effective (2018 year, X reports on a calendar year end for both book & tax purposes).
 

X had the following amounts of excess interest allocated: 
2018400
2019500
2020500


X has always been profitable since inception but is expecting to generate a tax loss of $300 absent any incremental benefit from the CARES Act. Due to an inability to project potential excess future Adjusted Taxable Income, X has recorded a valuation allowance against the excess interest carryovers. Under the provisions of the CARES Act, in 2020 X is able to utilize without limitation 50% of the excess interest from 2019 ($250) and an incremental $40 in 2020 due to the 50% ATI limitation (assumes ATI of $200, of which $60 of interest is inherent in the $300 loss leaving an additional $40 available from the CARES Act provisions). The result for 2020 is a potential carryback of $590.

In the instant situation, X should recognize the benefit of the utilization of the excess interest expense deduction from 2019 as a discrete item in its 2020 tax provision since it is realizable solely based on a retroactive change in tax law. The 2020 amount should be considered part of the AETR since it relates to current year amounts and is retroactive to the beginning of the year.

Additional Interim Considerations Due to COVID-19

Impairments
Due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the possibility of impairments on assets and goodwill is increased. Significant judgement would be required to determine whether the tax impact of such impairments would be recorded discretely in the quarter or included as part of the AETR calculation. It can be argued that if impairments have occurred in the past, the impacts may be recorded as part of the AETR calculation. Alternatively, the uniqueness of the COVID-19 pandemic might also suggest that the underlying event is highly unusual and non-recurring and therefore may be considered discrete.
 
Goodwill impairments when tax-deductible goodwill exists presents challenges with respect to deferred taxes. In these situations, consider the following example:

Example – Goodwill Impairment
X in performing its annual impairment testing for one of its reporting units determined that the fair value of the unit was $1,100 while its carrying amount was $1,200. The unit had $400 of goodwill, all of which was tax deductible, a deferred tax liability of $100 related to the Component 1 goodwill and other net assets of $900. X has adopted ASU 2017-04 Intangibles-Goodwill and other (Topic 350) -Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment. The following is the calculation of the impairment based upon the above:
 

 Carrying AmountFair ValuePreliminary
Impairment
Deferred Tax
Adjustment
 Carrying Amount
after Impairment
       
Goodwill400 (100)(27)n1273
       
Other assets900    900
       
Deferred tax liability(100)  27 (73)
       
Total1,2001,100(100)                 1,100


n1 $27 = $100 * ((21%/(1-21%))

X would report a $127 goodwill impairment charge partially offset by a $27 deferred tax benefit that would be recorded in the income tax line. In cases where tax deductible goodwill exists companies will need to solve the impairment via the use of the simultaneous equation as illustrated above.

Inability to Forecast
ASC 740-270 requires companies to recognize income tax expense in interim periods with the view that each interim period is part of the overall annual period. Companies are generally required to forecast their AETR and apply that rate to ordinary income in each reporting period. The tax expense or benefit for all other items are individually computed and recognized discretely.[11] If an entity is unable to estimate a part of its ordinary income (or loss) or the related tax (or benefit) but is otherwise able to make a reliable estimate, the tax (or benefit) applicable to the item that cannot be estimated shall be reported in the interim period in which the item is reported.[12]
 
Some companies may not be able to accurately forecast income or loss due to the economic disruptions caused by COVID-19. In such situations, especially if modest fluctuations in forecasted earnings cause volatility in the AETR, companies should consider calculating their interim tax provision on a discrete basis as opposed to using the AETR approach. Careful consideration should be given to this judgement and the related disclosure requirements, especially if forecasts are used to support other parts of a company’s financial statements.
 
Year-to-Date Losses Exceed Forecasted Losses for the Year
Prior to a company’s adoption of Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2019-12, where the year-to-date loss exceeds the estimated loss for the year, an exception under the accounting rules limit the tax benefit in an interim period to the tax benefit of the forecasted loss. ASU 2019-12 removed this exception and allows an entity to record a benefit for a year-to-date loss when that loss exceeds its forecasted loss.  Companies that are expected to be in a position where the year-to-date losses will exceed their forecasted loss for the year may want to consider early adoption of the ASU. It should be noted, however, that should a company decide to early adopt ASU 2019-12, all provisions of the ASU need to be adopted.
 
Valuation Allowance Assessment
In general, a valuation allowance must be recognized to the extent that it is more likely than not that some or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized.[13] Companies must assess all available evidence, both positive and negative, objective and subjective, in determining the need for a valuation allowance. Future realization of the tax benefit of existing deferred tax assets ultimately depends on the existence of sufficient taxable income of the appropriate character (for example, ordinary income versus capital gain) within the carryback, carryforward period available under the law. ASC 740[14] provides for four sources of taxable income that may be available to realize the benefit of deferred tax assets:

  1. Future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences
  2. Future taxable income exclusive of reversing temporary differences and carryforwards
  3. Taxable income in prior carryback year(s) if carryback is permitted under the tax law
  4. Tax-planning strategies


The CARES Act has placed renewed emphasis on the third source of taxable income. As described earlier, net operating losses generated in years beginning after December 31, 2017, and before January 1, 2021, can be carried back five taxable years. In addition, the changes to IRC Section 163(j) allow for the election of an enhanced deduction of interest for the years 2019 and 2020.
 
The ability to carryback losses is a source of income in assessing the need for a valuation allowance and will likely cause some companies to reassess their valuation allowance position. Similarly, the relaxation of the rules for interest deductibility may, in some cases, reduce valuation allowances previously recorded.
 
The impairment of tax-deductible goodwill may create a deferred tax asset for which a company would need to assess its realizability. Further, an impairment could reduce or eliminate a deferred tax liability that was used as a source of income for indefinite-lived deferred tax assets.
 
Similarly, entities that have historically relied upon reversing taxable temporary difference related to non-deductible book intangibles as a source of income to realize existing deferred tax assets may find this source of income eliminated in whole or in part as a result of impairments to the book intangibles. In the entity’s consideration of other sources of income as part of its valuation allowance assessment, specifically future taxable income, the effects of COVID-19 on projected results should be considered.
 
These changes may require companies to re-visit their valuation allowance considerations and reflect changes to their valuation allowances either as part of their estimated AETR, or as a discrete adjustment in the period. In addition, companies should consider the appropriate intraperiod allocation of changes in valuation allowances.
 
Indefinite Reinvestment Assertion – ASC 740-30
The economic pressure caused by COVID-19 has created significant strain on the cash flows of many companies. As a result, companies may need to revisit their indefinite reinvestment assertion to determine whether they can continue to maintain that certain earnings are permanently reinvested.  Considerations include any contradictory evidence related to the parent or upstream entity’s ability to service debt, meet working capital needs, or make required changes to infrastructure. Companies should update cash flow forecasts to see whether sufficient cash will be generated to service its debt and working capital obligations.
 
If a change in assertion is made, ASC 740 requires that the change in an entity’s ASC 740-30 assertion for temporary differences accumulated in prior years be recognized in continuing operations in the period in which its intentions change.[15] Current and deferred taxes should be considered for the following items:

  1. Foreign withholding taxes
  2. State income taxes
  3. IRC Section 986(c) currency impacts related to previously taxed earnings

Other Considerations

Balance Sheet Classification & Current/Deferred Tax Issues:
Under the TCJA, corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) credits were refundable over a four-year period during tax years beginning in 2018-2021. Under the CARES Act, any remaining corporate AMT credit is fully refundable for tax years beginning in 2019.[16] Alternatively, a taxpayer may elect to make the credit fully refundable for the tax year beginning in 2018.
 
As a result, companies that have remaining AMT credits that are to be refunded would be expected to classify these amounts as a current receivable.
 
Global Government Assistance
In the current COVID-19 pandemic, governments and institutions across the globe are introducing measures to try to alleviate the impact on businesses, individuals and families. Fiscal and financial compensation measures are evolving over time: Government-backed loans to businesses, business tax rate relief, direct business grants, support for the self-employed, the extension of tax deadlines and the relaxation of rules on the payment of sickness benefits, are just some examples. 

 
State and Local Tax Implications (SALT)
 
The provisions of the CARES Act present a new round of challenges for taxpayers as states laws differ with respect to the timing and application of federal tax legislation.

Summary

As new tax law emerges to address the economic impact of COVID-19, consideration should be given to the impact of such tax law changes in the period in which they are enacted.
 


[1]  Public Law No: 116-136.

[2] ASC 740-10-25-47.

[3] CARES Act Sec. 2303.

[4]  IRC Section 965, enacted as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, requires United States shareholders (as defined under Section 951(b)) to pay a transition tax on the untaxed foreign earnings of certain specified foreign corporations as if those earnings had been repatriated to the United States.

[5] ASC 740-270-30-7.

[6] ASC 740-270-25-7.

[7] “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017,” Public Law 115-97.

[8] IRS Form 1139, Corporation Application for Tentative Refund.

[9]  IRC Section 6511.

[10]  CARES Act Sec. 2306.

[11] ASC 740-270-25-2.

[12] ASC 740-270-25-3.

[13] ASC 740-10-30-5(e).

[14] ASC 740-10-30-18(a)-(d).

[15] ASC 740-30-25-19.

[16] CARES Act Sec. 2305.

Create a Preparedness Plan to Ensure Business Continuity

Critical events, such as an infectious disease outbreak, are not always preventable and may be difficult to anticipate. That’s why being ready with a business continuity plan is half the battle. The goal of business continuity management planning is to get businesses back on track following a disruptive event.

Maintain Business Continuity

Start by identifying which organizational processes will be most affected by a disruptive event. Anticipate the types of disruption that pose the greatest risk, and proactively implement policies and procedures to mitigate their effects.

Follow these essential steps to create the foundation for a Business Continuity Plan:

  • Conduct a thorough risk assessment to identify critical processes and functions that would be impacted during a business disruption
  • Identify compliance requirements
  • Identify essential employees to deliver critical processes and functions
  • Determine the agility of the workforce and what resources may be needed during a disruption
  • Review current or develop policies regarding remote work, paid or unpaid sick or personal time
  • Review policy to encourage sick or unwell employees to work remote or separated from other employees
  • Align business travel to align with government mandated travel restrictions
  • Discuss protocol for the safe evacuation or quarantine of employees who are traveling
  • Define internal and external stakeholders for conveying communication
  • Develop strategies and vetted holding statements to communicate with employees, customers, consumers and the media
  • Review supplier service level agreements to consequences for not abiding by contracts
  • Review supplier business continuity plans to determine whether they align with your businesses expectations
  • Define the capabilities of the upstream supply chain to determine their capability to provide your business what it needs during a disruption
  • Consider increasing inventory to extend operations if the upstream supplier is not capable of delivering needed goods
  • Define the capabilities of the downstream supply chain to assess impact to your customers if operations are no longer feasible at normal capacity
  • Communicate business decisions to appropriate audiences
  • Train response team members on responsibilities during a disruption
  • Test the Business Continuity Plan by conducting tabletop exercises

Maintain Employee Safety

Every organization has a duty to protect the health and safety of its employees. That duty is even greater during a critical event involving infectious disease. OSHA recommends taking a systematic approach to planning for employee safety during a disruptive event.

Issues to consider and plan for:

  • Be aware of and review federal, state, and local health department recommendations, and integrate into your plan.
  • Prepare and plan for operations with a reduced workforce.
  • Identify possible exposures and health risks to your employees.
  • Plan for downsizing services but also anticipate any scenario which may require a surge in services.
  • Recognize that in the course of normal daily life all employees will have non-occupational risk factors at home and in community settings.
  • Stockpile items such as soap, tissue, hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies, & recommended PPE.
  • Provide employees and customers with easy access to infection control supplies.
  • Develop policies and practices that, if necessary, can be introduced to separate employees from each other, customers, and the general public.
  • Identify a team to serve as a communication resource so that employees and customers have access to accurate information throughout the crisis.
  • Work with employees & their union(s) to address leave, pay, transportation, childcare, absence, & other human resource issues.
  • Provide training, education, and informational material about business-essential job functions and employee health and safety.
  • Work with your insurance company, and state and local health agencies to provide accurate information to employees and customers regarding medical information specific to the event.
  • Assist employees in managing additional stressors.

This article originally appeared in HUB International’s “HUB Insights”. Copyright © 2020 HUB International Limited. All rights reserved. www.hubinternational.com

Mitigating Cyber, Business and Health Risks of COVID-19

Overview

CyFIR Enterprise—and its on-demand, instantly-available variant CyFIR Investigator available on the AWS Marketplace—provides fully remote incident response, forensic investigation, insider threat, and eDiscovery collection capabilities to IT security organizations, including those currently under work-from-home or travel restrictions. Built with an enterprise-first architecture, CyFIR was designed for forensic-grade remote access of corporate computing assets, either down the hall or across the globe.

COVID-19 Disrupts Normal Workplace Functions

To “flatten the curve” of the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, many businesses and organizations are asking employees to leave the normal confines of their offices and work remotely from home. Even with strict VPN-access policies, computing assets in the wild are less protected than those internal to a company’s defenses. When employees are working remotely, their computing systems are subject to the potentially questionable defenses of their home’s network configuration and defenses.

Several cybersecurity firms are reporting increased attack activity against a range of targets using the COVID-19 pandemic to dupe their targets into launching malware as large portions of the world have their attention turned toward the virus. With employees being distracted by juggling unanticipated work from home, closed schools, potentially sick relatives, and limited office resources, they may be less vigilant in ensuring that every link in a multitude of email messages is a safe one.

Additionally, the COVID-19 virus has impacted travel capabilities for IT security units that often work on-site with customers, such as Incident Response (IR) and eDiscovery collection teams. Traditional IR models often call for a team to fly to a customer’s location, work on-site with employees to collect disk images of computing resources, and then fly back to their corporate offices to begin analyzing the content of those images. Not only does this approach expose an IR provider’s employees to potential threats of COVID-19 in both travel and working in unknown environments, but it also reflects an inefficiency and of the Incident Response market driven by the limitations of common software platforms in the field.

Further exacerbating the issue of providing incident response and investigative services to a “work from home” workforce is the reduced internet connection speeds of home broadband service. Many forensic investigation platforms rely upon the support of a high-speed network connection, assuming that they are being used within the confines of an office. This essentially renders IT Security teams incapable of addressing their company’s security concerns while its workforce is practicing social distancing and isolation to combat COVID-19.

CyFIR Allows IT Security and Incident Response Functions to Continue Remotely—Without Access Limitations or Risk of Viral Exposure

Internal IT Security Teams

With the immediate mandate to work from home established by many organizations in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, many IT Security teams will find themselves unprepared to handle their job functions with the majority of the computers under their protection being removed from the corporate network and exposed to a wide variety of home networks with differing security postures. While this may be “business as usual” for modern distributed companies, factors involved in ensuring security for remote computing assets often have not been thoroughly considered or prepared for by traditional organizations.

With the CyFIR Smart Agent deployed to computing assets, IT Security, Insider Threat, and eDiscovery collection teams can remotely access endpoints with forensic fidelity to perform their critical job functions, unaffected by the location of either their analysis workstation or the targeted computing endpoints. With appropriate permissions, security staff can review detailed information about running processes, search for files of interest across all endpoints simultaneously, dive deeply into an endpoint’s file system or email storage, examine open network connections for signs of data exfiltration, extract files or processes of interest for storage or further analysis, and more—regardless if those endpoints or analysis workstations are inside or outside of the corporate firewalls.

Incident Response Companies

Because of the limitations imposed by both common incident response investigation software platforms and unchallenged legacy procedural thinking, most companies engaging in incident response work send teams of individuals—billable by the hour—on-site to create tens, dozens, or hundreds of image copies of potentially affected computer systems which they then bring back to the lab for analysis separately or in small batches. This methodology puts a company’s staff and customers at risk during a viral pandemic.

With CyFIR’s enterprise-first, fully remote architecture, a CyFIR installation can be set-up on customer premises, at corporate headquarters, in a corporate data center, or in the Cloud. For short-term, immediate-need engagements, CyFIR LLC also offers CyFIR Investigator on the Amazon Web Services Marketplace. Using CyFIR Investigator on AWS, within fifteen minutes, Incident Responders can create an appropriately sized CyFIR server for engagements from five to 2,500 concurrent endpoints and begin deploying CyFIR Smart Agents to computers in need of incident response investigation or remediation. This can all be done remotely, from any location, to any region served and supported by the AWS Cloud. In doing so, this protects IR staff from traveling and being exposed to unknown conditions on-site, allowing them to be effective, productive, and responsive while meeting the CDC’s recommendations of social distancing and protective isolation. With additional CyFIR Investigator instances, numerous individual customers can be handled from one analyst using a single workstation connected to the AWS Cloud for everything from making a live, remote, forensically-sound disk image to performing a full Incident Response investigation and remediation across thousands of endpoints. Five-day free trials—often more than enough time to complete an investigation with the concurrent endpoint processing offered by CyFIR—are available on CyFIR Investigator instances of 250 endpoints and larger.

CyFIR Operates in a Low Bandwidth Environment

Unlike most “enterprise” forensic analysis platforms, CyFIR is able to function in a remote, low-bandwidth environment. CyFIR’s remotely deployed Smart Agents contain the forensic processing functions of the CyFIR platform. The Investigator’s interface simply provides commands to the endpoint Smart Agents, and the Smart Agents return a small amount of data with the resulting information. Investigators can then choose which files or processes to preview, review, remotely acquire, and more. While CyFIR cannot image a hard drive faster over a low-bandwidth connection than its competitors, the live nature of CyFIR’s forensic investigation and incident response capabilities allow investigators to complete their work without requiring that a disk or RAM image be made.

In short, using CyFIR Enterprise, IT Security staff can successfully complete incident response, internal investigations, and endpoint remediation safely and remotely, even over slower, “work from home” internet connections.

Conclusion

Whether business operations are disrupted by COVID-19 or it’s business as usual, CyFIR’s remote, enterprise-scale forensic investigation, monitoring, and malcode detection capabilities can be deployed from any location to meet enterprise needs of any size. For rapid incident response, internal investigation, or eDiscovery collection matters, CyFIR Investigator on AWS Marketplace provides broad forensic investigation capabilities across five to 2,500 endpoints concurrently, and subscribers pay only for the time needed to complete the task at hand. Within fifteen minutes, IT Security personnel can be ready to deploy CyFIR Smart Agents to meet the unanticipated cybersecurity challenges currently unfolding from COVID-19 without risk of exposure to potentially infected coworkers, travelers, or customers.

For more information, please visit our website at https://www.cyfir.com or contact Gary Mellott at gary.mellott@cyfir.com.