For most of us, our work days are looking a little different lately. Instead of settling in at our desks amongst our coworkers, we’re setting up at dining room tables, home offices and having water cooler conversations with spouses and pets. While this is all necessary to protect the health of our workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, it poses some real cyber risks that threaten the health of business operations.
Cybercriminals, true to form, have used this workplace disruption as an opportunity to launch phishing campaigns and ransomware/malware attacks. For many business owners, this is the first time their employees have worked from home for any length of time, making them especially vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Fortunately, Hartford Steam Boiler – Munich Re has prepared the following tips to help business owners safely manage IT security among their remote workforce:
- Use a VPN for a secure connection between your system and remote employees as well as implement multi factor authentication
- Instruct your workforce to be online only when necessary
- Strongly express the importance of reporting any unusual activity (emails, etc.)
- Stress that employees should not click on unusual/unknown email links
PRO TIP: Hover over email addresses to ensure it’s truly the person whom it appears to come from
- Do not use mobile devices for sensitive information sharing
- Continuously monitor for patches, alert your employees to them and keep your systems up to date
- Segment older and unnecessary applications away from remote users
- Segment personally identifying and personal health information so that only those employees with a need can access
- Provide only the essential IT tools remote employees need to do their work
If you are a business owner, please feel free to distribute this HSB Cyber Safety tip sheet to your employees as they navigate their WFH experience.
