The COVID-19 pandemic is not fun for anyone. Well, except for maybe your pets since you are home all day and they have someone to pet them all day long. But for the rest of us, it is disruptive in all aspects of our lives and especially for work. If you suddenly have to work from home like many of us, were you prepared so you can actually do the work you need to do? Are you ready for any cybersecurity prevention steps you normally do not need to take when working from the office?
“Chance favors the prepared mind” -Louis Pasteur
The hackers are taking advantage of the pandemic and home workers. Expect and be prepared for many more phishing attempts that will range from the usual Office 365 ones but also more specific ones like an email from “HR” asking you to do something since you are now working from home. There is no better time than now to start doing Security Awareness Training. If you are already doing this, great, just ramp it up and make sure your team is following the best practices.
Be as prepared as you can
If your team is working on their home machines, make sure they have all the corporate security apps (Anti-XXXX, firewall, Windows updates, etc.). Just because they are at home does not mean they are safe and isolated when it comes to cybersecurity. All it takes is one machine that is connected to the corporate network via VPN to infect the entire network and all the users. The last thing you need at this time is a Ransomware infection….
If you are not already using MFA (Multi-factor Authentication) do it now. Yes, it will be painful since you were not using it when things were “normal”, but you really need this extra layer of protection now.
If your employees are leveraging your VPN setup, make sure that everything has bee updated and it is set up properly. From my experience, normally only a handful of people use VPN regularly and often the VPN system will get ignored to a degree. Suddenly all of your employees are using it so make sure it is working and setup like it should be so you are secure and reliable.
Can your cybersecurity hear me now?
Have you ever worried about conference calling and cybersecurity? Probably not. Now is the time to pay attention to it. With your team working remotely, how are they communicating for meetings? Most likely on conference calls. How are you handling this? Do you give out static codes for people to use so random people from the team call in to meet and no one is monitoring who is on the call? Would you be concerned if a hacker called in and just listened and took notes for how to gain insight into your environment to hack it?
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning. – Winston Churchill
To stay protected and learn more, check this out. Got a question or want some advice? Shoot me an email (jahlberg[at]waident.com) or give me a call (630-547-7011)
