Brief update
There is a great deal of misinformation about the Covid-19 outbreak. National Security Centres agree that there is a sustained misinformation attack using social media to feed main news channels, intended to create panic, to warn of false shortages of food and other essential items, to disrupt normal business and its output, and to generally harm the economies of the free world.
One of the biggest results of the fear of Coronavirus is the encouragement of businesses to make workers ‘work from home’, in an attempt to prevent human contacts and a potential infection spread. While this may cause overload disruption to some broadband carriers, the biggest cyber effect is on cyber security. While many large businesses have large cyber security organisations, procedures and measures, potential hackers will use the opportunity to their advantage.
The parent company’s cyber security may be adequate, but the weaknesses may come from its ‘out stations’: its suppliers, its sub offices and increasingly its ‘workers from home’, who may not have the same level of cyber security available. By accessing these softer targets, cyber criminals hope to gain access to the central company data and links. An increase in ‘supply chain attacks’ and phishing e-mails is already starting to appear.
Our friends at Paratus help us to see things more clearly, and explain to us what precautions to take while working from home.
Get to know how secure your home WiFi is.
Have you changed the default router name and password? Have you updated your routers firmware and are using a WPA2 password?
Be wary of phishing e-mails.
Should the "national health service" or "Your company IT" ask you to click though and "verify" your e-mail and password?
Think before you download or open files.
Cyber criminals are using the opportunity of people working from home to get malware onto less protected networks and devices.
Preferably use a company-approved device to connect to corporate networks.
Instead of your personal devices.
NEAR FUTURE
To provide cyber security to both the growing number of companies who are being forced into a 'work from home' situation, and the home workers themselves, the Paratus team is working urgently on on developing a 'Working From Home Security Assessment' to add to its existing portal.