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Keeping Your Business ‘Cyber Safe’ When Working From Home

Over the years digital crime has been on the rise and businesses, in general, have had the ability to fight any threats via in–house cybersecurity systems. But with the unprecedented rise of remote working, cybercriminals have been able to find numerous cracks in what may have been reasonably secure systems. 

As this landscape changes, businesses must adapt and secure any weak spots in their systems that may be vulnerable to the digital underworld. Considering this may not change for some time and or remote working policies become permanent, data protection and security for businesses should be a priority. 

In the UK more than 1,000 malware attacks happen per hour! 

Remote Working 

As part of managing the Coronavirus situation, many businesses have implemented a remote working strategy. This presents new cybersecurity challenges that must be managed. 

Cybersecurity is a major challenge for every business, however, the pandemic has caused a huge shift in the threat landscape, as hackers and cybercriminals turn their attentions to home workers instead of corporate networks. This change in focus means that staff working from home are now more vulnerable to a cyber-attack than ever before. 

We don’t know the exact number of cyber-attacks each day, but the firewall manufacturer Watchguard reports that on average their firewalls block 1,000 malware attacks per hour in the UK alone. That’s roughly one attack every 4 seconds, which is worrying when you consider this is only one of numerous firewall manufacturers. 

What are the ‘Top Threats’? 

The top cybersecurity threats trending right now include coronavirus email scams and Zero-Day attacks. 

Coronavirus email scams – Cybercriminals are preying on fears of the coronavirus by sending ‘phishing’ emails that try to trick users into clicking a bad link. Once clicked, the user is sent to a fake or dodgy website designed to steal your user credentials and passwords, or to download malware onto your computer (these can include key-loggers and crypto-ransomware). 

A Zero-day attack – is a cyber-attack that occurs on the same day a weakness is discovered in a particular software. At that point, the weakness is exploited before a fix becomes available from its creator. A successful zero-day attack can result in allowing the attacker full access to your systems, enabling them to steal your security details and your data. Zero-day attacks make up 64% of all malware attacks today. 

Top 5 tips for protecting remote workers 

Preparing your business and staff for home working  

The Basics – Good cybersecurity protection starts with the basics, making sure staff laptops and desktops have encrypted data at rest and sufficient protection against viruses and malware. Deploying a software solution that protects against Zero-Day threats is essential. Products such as Panda Active Defence 360 and ESET Dynamic Threat Defence are an invaluable investment and simple to deploy and manage. 

Email Filtering – Make sure you have a reputable email filtering system, as this will block most of the toxic emails from entering your business. You should also note that a good email filtering service will never block 100% of scam emails. Class–leading services are available from vendors like Mimecast, Barracuda and Microsoft. Educating staff is just as important as having digital security solutions, generally, the human element is one of the biggest cracks in any cybersecurity system. 

Implement a strong password policy and Two-Factor-Authentication (2FA) – A strong password policy protects against password guessing and ensures a minimum level of password complexity. 2FA further protects your business against hackers and data theft by requiring a home worker to provide a second form of identity authentication before being granted access to your systems and data. 2FA is usually delivered through a smartphone app, making it simple and convenient for home workers to adopt.   

Data Encryption – Ensure access to your data and applications is encrypted. This can be achieved by implementing VPN’s (Virtual Private Networks) or by moving your data into the Cloud and adopting a SaaS (Software-as-Service) model. Most software vendors these days have a cloud offering which is secure and encrypted.   

Educate your staff – Providing home workers with regular cybersecurity awareness training is essential in the fight against cyber-crime. The training will help your home workers be more alert to the risks of clicking bad website links or following instructions from an attacker who is impersonating someone in authority within your organisation. This should never be underestimated as to how well it works; many threats are sophisticated enough to fool even the wariest user and regular education is the key to mitigating the human element. 

Whilst all of this can sound extremely alarming there is help at hand. There are numerous solutions that can be implemented to secure your business data and allow for a business-as-usual approach when remote working is implemented. 

Elite Group are well versed in how to deal with cyber threats and can guide you through a variety of ways to mitigate security breaches before they happen. Give our team a call today and they can discuss your options for a more secure digital network.

Elite Group is one of the UK’s leading unified communication providers, supplying reliable and professional IT and telecoms services to organisations seeking Business Mobile, Cloud, Networking, Connectivity, and Telephony solutions.  

For more information on how Elite Group can power your unified communication solutions, call us or request a quote today