The outbreak and spread of contagious diseases such as COVID-19 has adversely affected, and may continue to adversely affect, our business, financial condition and results of operations. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a widespread global public health crisis. Such infectious illness outbreaks or other adverse public health developments in countries where we operate, as well as local, state and/or national government restrictive measures implemented to control such outbreaks, could adversely affect the economies of many nations or the entire global economy, the financial condition of individual issuers or companies and capital markets, in ways that cannot necessarily be foreseen, and such impacts could be significant and long term. Such extraordinary events and their aftermaths can cause investor fear and panic, which can further adversely affect the operations and performance of companies, sectors, nations, regions and financial markets in general and in ways that cannot necessarily be foreseen.
In order to remain competitive, we must continue to perform our asset management and related business responsibilities for our clients and investors properly and effectively, which, among other matters, is dependent on the health and safety of our personnel, the ability of our personnel to work remotely successfully, and our ability to continue to have our personnel return to work at our offices safely and effectively in compliance with applicable requirements. Moreover, since implementing broad work-from-home measures during the pandemic, we have an increased dependency on remote equipment and connectivity infrastructure to access critical business systems that may be subject to failure, disruption or unavailability that could negatively impact our business operations. Further, we, like many others, have been subject to increased phishing and other social engineering attempts by malicious actors to manipulate individuals into divulging confidential or personal information. If our cybersecurity diligence and efforts to offset the increased risks associated with greater reliance on mobile, collaborative and remote technologies are not effective or successful, we will be at increased risk for cybersecurity or data privacy incidents.
It is not possible to predict the full extent to which the pandemic may continue to evolve and/or adversely impact our business, liquidity, capital resources, financial results and operations, which impacts will depend on numerous developing factors that remain uncertain and subject to change.