Cyber & Remote Working
6 September 2020
Before the pandemic, the words ‘Zoom Bombing’ would make most of think of sunny poolside days with kids smiling with glee as they soak one another with maximum force. In 2020 this phrase refers to just one of the ways that cybercriminals are capitalising on our need to work remotely. As many organisations offer home working as a way mitigating the COVID risk to both their staff and the business as a whole, many are finding themselves vulnerable to cyber attacks.
IT professionals have seen a rise of over 20% on attacks on remote workers, and all find that the threats are significantly harder to trace over home networks.
While we get to grips with what the pandemic means for our businesses we are already vulnerable, so the additional risk of phishing or malware or any cyber-attack needs to be managed, cybersecurity needs to be at the top of our risk agendas.
Cyber risk mitigation is about people. The most significant risk to your organisation is your remote working team; home workers tend to be less vigilant about security so your team must be encouraged to stay alert. Simple steps such as using encryption and multi-factor authentication can go a long way to protecting workers.
When remote working, avoiding public WI-Fi is sound advice as well as encouraging your teams to use password managers. Organisations should use a virtual private network to add a security gateway.
9 out of 10 staff believe that security is their employer’s responsibility, so training staff on the risks they may face and how to manage their online security is essential.
With home working comes the joys of sharing devices and the network with your family. The cybercriminals are very aware of this, and we have seen attacks which have specifically targeted the children of remote workers, while uncommon, it is a risk. That brings us back to our zoom bombing kids. It doesn’t take long for children to create havoc on any devices; this can be reputational, financial or result in a security breach. Therefore all apps should be password protected.
The remote working revolution is here, and every day thousands of us are working from home without any security breaches. Still, for this to work well into the future, we must be aware of the potential risks and how to mitigate them. Every organisation needs to talk about their risk and to create a strategy to deal with any security breach or attack.
Cyber insurance is more crucial than ever as attacks and data breaches increase in both frequency and sophistication. Having the right cover in place will support and protect your business if it is the subject of an attack by a malicious hacker or experiences a data breach. It not only provides comprehensive cover but will provide you with a trusted partner to support your business, and your remote workers, in the event of a cyber attack.
A range of insurance products have been developed to meet the increasing demand for cover, so not only is there a product available to suit your specific business needs, but it’s also far more cost effective than ever before.
Working with us to put the right cover in place and mitigate your risk will help you to build peace of mind and resilience in your business. Just get in touch with your usual account executive or contact Charlotte Perkins on 0115 942 0111 or [email protected]