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Half of All Organizations Experienced Cyber Security Incidents During the Remote Working Period

Wednesday, November 11, 2020 16:52

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COVID-19 has changed what employers expect from their employees and what employees expect from their work environment. It is commonly believed that the future of work will be a hybrid environment where employees spend a portion of their time working at home and the rest of their time working in an office.

At first, employers and employees felt some uncertainty about working from home. Employers believed that having employees work from home would reduce productivity. Employees feared that their home/work separation would disappear. Now that work from home has been the norm for several months, both employers and employees are seeing the benefits of it. Many are finding work from home preferable.

There were already several tools designed to help employers track remote workers’ productivity. There were several affordable cloud-based invoicing apps that-work-from home employees could use to keep track of customers. In both cases, new products have been released with extended features that have streamlined working from home. Now, many employees say that going forward they would not look for employment if it did not offer some work from home and on-site work hybrid.

However, not everything has been hunky-dory. There has been a marked increase in cybersecurity threats now that employees work from home. IT teams are working overtime to come up with solutions that give employees the flexibility needed to work from home while protecting the organizations they work for.

Phishing Scams Have Increased in Frequency and Successfulness

Phishing scams have increased both in intensity and in level of success. Remote workers are at greater risk of falling prey to a phishing attack. This is not speculation or exaggeration. Research shows that over three quarters of employees who are working remotely that were surveyed said that they have received at least one phishing email while working on their personal laptop between the months of March and July 2020. Of that group, 68 percent said that they clicked on a link or downloaded an email that had an attachment.

In fact, close to 50 percent of companies that had a data breach between March and July 2020 said that phishing attacks caused those data breaches. This shows just how successful phishing attacks have been during this time with people working remotely.

Phishing attacks have been used to deliver ransomware. Ransomware can paralyze an organization. Ransomware allows cyber criminals to prevent a person from accessing their computer until a ransom is paid.

Phishing scams have become more complicated. This is because cyber criminals have become more skilled in using personal information and spoofed email addresses to trick people into giving up information that allows the criminal to access the company’s network.

Remote Employees Must Be Trained to Work Responsibly

When everyone worked within the same office environment, communication was often walking down the hall and walking into a colleague’s office or cubicle. Thanks to social distancing, email has become the primary channel that people are using to stay connected with each other remotely. This means that there are more opportunities for hackers to use phishing scams and other scams that are delivered via email.

Other channels of communication that have increased in popularity are webinars and videoconferencing, as well as instant messaging and workplace chat apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams. Unquestionably, hackers are going to make greater use of these forms of communication to infiltrate organizations.

Because the intensity of the attacks have increased, the intensity with which organizations train their employees to identify cyber attacks must also increase. Remote workers that are properly trained are the best defense an organization can have.

Many organizations offer their employees laptops that come equipped with cybersecurity software and protocols. However, some employees feel locked-in or restricted and opt to use their personal laptops or personal equipment because it gives them flexibility. Unfortunately, since their equipment lacks cybersecurity tools, their equipment creates vulnerabilities that raise cybersecurity risk.

A Real Need to Plan for the Future

There exists a real need for IT teams to plan for the future in hybrid work environments. People have become accustomed to the level of flexibility that they are currently experiencing. Not needing to travel for hours to get to a physical office has opened up possibilities that people did not imagine before. They will not give up that freedom easily.

While the hybrid work environment is great for employees, it presents unique challenges for IT teams. Their focus must be mitigating risk that happens in the office and outside of the office. They also need to create a seamless experience that makes it possible for employees to work productively regardless of where they are.

Companies that cannot adapt to this new way of work are going to lose out because they are not going to offer their customers the products or services they demand. They are also going to lose out on employees who value their freedom and flexibility more than anything else.

Businesses need to step up solutions that take some pressure off of IT teams. This can be done by giving IT teams improved visibility into the behavior of their employees. Manual tasks may need to be automated, and employees may need to be alerted if they are engaging in activities that could be potentially dangerous before they are able to do them.

Steps Remote Workers Can Take to Mitigate Vulnerability to Cyber Attacks

Following best practices for keeping data safe while in office is relatively easy. The challenge comes when employees need to remember the security measures while at home.

· Home Wi-Fi is a major source of vulnerability. Remote workers should use the most secure network protocol. For example, instead of using WEP settings, they should use the more secure WPA-2.

· Emails should only be opened once they verify the sender. Phishing scams are carried out by hackers who send seemingly legitimate emails. However, there are always clues that the email is not legitimate and that it has not been sent by the person who supposedly sent it. Remote workers should follow their organization’s protocols before opening an email.

· Password strength is important. It is easy to hack a simple password. This can threaten the data stored on a remote employee’s device. Using the same simple password on multiple accounts gives hackers access to all those accounts.

Maintaining cybersecurity for employees who work from home is essential for organizations. IT teams must work with remote workers and educate them about cybersecurity risks in order to safeguard critical data.

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Comments

Total 1 comment

MilanIask

This is a very useful article I will send my boss to. He is a great fan of security, This idea is everywhere in our work. Office security, data security. I know that he contacted with https://waverleysoftware.com/cybersecurity/. This is the company that checks the cybersecurity of different products.

Nov 24, 2020, 4:28 pm 0 Reply

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