For a lot of people and businesses around the world, remote and hybrid working is now a norm. The origin of this first started at the beginning of the pandemic, when businesses were encouraged to start working from home where possible. Even looking at job websites today such as Indeed or Reed, we can see that many roles are now offering both remote and hybrid options.
Despite the new flexibility for workers, studies suggest that despite the fact that it has been a few years since the start of the pandemic and the introduction of working from home, many still do not have the right cyber security measures in place to ensure that employees and data are both safe from cyber attackers.
IT security is so important to protect your data, without this your business cannot continue operating as normal. We access so many kinds of data, stored in various locations every day. It is crucial that the right measures have been put in place to protect your data and that the necessary protocols, procedures, software and other cyber security measures have been established to protect your business’s operations.
One of the trends that has been picked upon is the significant increase in malware, ransomware and data breaches. All three have spiked since the start of the pandemic and the increase in remote workers. Not only have the attacks become more frequent, but they have also become more sophisticated and difficult to predict.
It is no longer good enough to use basic cyber security protocols, you need several preventative cyber security measures in place to help protect your data in the event of a cyber attack. You should also have a cyber incident response process in place, preparing for the potential risk of cyber attacks and having the knowledge of how they should be handled.
What is the biggest cyber security problem of working from home?
Working from home is a convenient setup for a lot of people with many benefits. However, this way of working can unintentionally be detrimental to your business and increase the risk of data breaches.
Cyber attackers are constantly on the lookout for vulnerabilities and weaknesses in your IT that can be exposed and breached. In 2020, 66% of U.K. organisations were hit with successful attacks by unauthorised individuals. Here are the three most common threats of a remote work setup:
Phishing emails
Many cyber attackers that take the phishing approach heavily rely on topical aspects of their victim’s life as a way of persuading them to click on an infected link or to download malicious attachments. Quite often, these attackers will impersonate someone that their victim trusts and recognises, such as their boss or a manager.
Phishing emails have become so sophisticated that they have become increasingly more difficult to recognise and detect. Many of these types of emails have the ability to swiftly sneak through corporate email filters, making them more believable and dangerous.
Unsecure devices
Not all employees are provided with equipment to use whilst working from home, many resort to using their personal devices that often lack even some of the basic cyber security tools i.e. antivirus software or VPN. This can quickly lead to a series of vulnerabilities and security risks.
A potential benefit of working in an office is access to a hardware based VPN. A VPN, a virtual private network, uses encryption during your networking sessions. Therefore, your device and your movement on the web are kept anonymous and almost untraceable. This makes it very difficult for cyber attackers to detect and decrypt you.
Something that has come of late are home printer breaches. Again, as these devices are also using a standard home Wi-Fi network, there are some serious cyber security gaps that hackers can exploit as a way of gaining access to your network, essentially having total control over all of your home devices.
Unsecure Wi-Fi network
Something that a lot of people forget about is that their home Wi-Fi requires regular maintenance to ensure that its security hygiene is up to scratch and that any vulnerabilities or weaknesses have been patched or removed. Home routers that are not updated or looked after will show security gaps that cyber attackers will not hesitate to exploit as a way of gaining access to that individual’s device and data.
We are all aware that home routers are not the most secure, but failing to regularly maintain them can increase the already high cyber security risk of data breaches.
How to stay cyber secure whilst working from home?
Training
Phishing emails and other similar types of cyber attacks can be easily avoided through adequate cyber security training. This ensures that employees are all aware of how to recognise this type of email and how to safely dispose of it.
It’s essential for companies to regularly organise cyber security training sessions and refresher courses, this is something that we offer at Solutions4IT. Regular practice and awareness courses remind employees of the different types of cyber security threats and how to use their equipment safely to avoid causing vulnerabilities to the company’s IT.
VPN
A solution to using an unsecure home network is to purchase a VPN subscription. There are so many exceptional and trusted VPN providers on the market such as NordVPN, Surfshark or ExpressVPN that all provide you with the right tools to browse privately without the worry of being hacked or watched.
Update your router
If you are able to perform the router updates yourself, otherwise you may need to contact your appointed provider and check that everything is patched and kept up-to-date. Another way that you can increase the security of your router is by regularly changing your password.
This greatly reduces the risk of hackers having the opportunity to crack your password and gain access to your network.
Let’s be honest. Remote working isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but it can be just as secure as working from the office if the right steps have been taken to increase and maintain your cyber security.
Through regular training, your employees will have a more rigorous understanding of recognising and dealing with malicious threats.
If you would like to discuss cyber security training and best security practices, get in touch with our team today!
