What are the cyber risks while working from home and how to prevent those risks?

The recent Coronavirus pandemic has forced people all around the world to stay at home as a precautionary measure of social distancing. It hampered millions of working employees who travel daily to their office for work. Many organizations have opted for the work-from-home policy to minimize the effect of the pandemic on businesses. But surprisingly, it has emerged as an effective and lucrative option to increase productivity as it provides more flexibility to the employees. Moreover, many organizations are planning to extend the facility of work-from-home post-pandemic. However, it has both the benefits and threats as it increases cyber risk, which is a serious threat to all the organizations around the globe.

Here are the top three cyber threats which need to be addressed while working at home

 

Insecure Home Network is an Open Invitation to Hackers

Most of the organizations use Virtual Private Networks or VPNs for their daily operations. VPNs, antivirus solutions, firewalls, and intrusion prevention systems are some of the key measures used by organizations to reduce cyber risks. However, most of the time people do not have this amount of security at home. Many times internet connections at home are already infected with malware or compromised hardware which provides easy access to hackers to stage attacks through machines with VPN termini. An organization will rarely enforce cybersecurity measures to protect important files and organizational data accessed by the employees while working at home. There is a high chance of security breaches through the home network as it can allow infiltrators to piggyback through an insecure network.

 

High Risk of Data sharing through mobiles and internet

It might be hard to digest, but employees use more than one device while working from home. The uses of multiple devices increase the risks of the data breach and may pose other cybersecurity threats. Within the few weeks of lockdown due to the global pandemic, hackers have started taking the benefit of fear, anxiety, and human weaknesses. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and other news agencies have reported the increase in the number of cyberattacks through mobile applications. These hackers pose these malicious applications as a legitimate app developed by WHO during the Covid-19 pandemic. Once installed, these applications secretly install Cerberus banking trojan to steal sensitive data from the device for fraudulent activities.

 

Limited IT Support while Working at Home

There is a difference in working at the office and working at home. Employees often require IT support at work, especially during security and authentication issues. At the office, the IT department can easily handle and resolve any issues arising at work. But, It could be a challenging job for IT teams when employees are working at home. It could increase the cyber risk for the organization and sometimes may have serious consequences.

 

How to Prevent Cyber Risk When Working at Home

In the time of the Covid-19 pandemic when the majority of people are doing work-from-home, organizations can follow the following crucial steps to safeguard their data and protect their business from cyberattacks. 

 

Invest in Hardware

The organization must create a policy for remote workers to limit the use of multiple devices. It would be better if a company provide laptops installed with anti-malware and efficient security controls.

 

Encryption and Back up data

Encryption is the most effective way to secure data as it encrypts your file and makes it difficult for hackers to decode, if, somehow managed to access your files. Always encrypt and back up the data to prevent security breaches and retrieve your information back.

 

Cyber Security Insurance 

Even one has the most advanced technology to prevent cyber attacks. It is not a guarantee that there will be no security breach in the future. Hackers are tirelessly developing new ways of infiltrating cybersecurity defense. Hence, one must have cyber security insurance to reimburse the loss caused due to cyber attacks.

 

Mandatory Work-From-Home Policy for Employees

The organization must have its work-from-home policy that will be mandatory to be followed by all the employees. The IT department must take the responsibility to aware the employees about the latest cyber threats and precautionary measures. As we know- "prevention is better than cure."