Taking into consideration recent events, cyber threats around the world have become more real and prominent. As the pandemic has continued to spread, corporate cybersecurity has been compromised with businesses implementing the work from home (WFH) policy.
IT experts are overconfident about their cybersecurity protocols and policies in their organization
After a survey of 200 IT experts by Malwarebytes, they concluded that the majority of the IT heads are overconfident that they have in place appropriate cybersecurity protocols and procedures.
The survey results show that 44 percent of the IT experts have not provided cybersecurity employee training, 45 percent have not performed security and privacy analysis of software tools required for WFH. Also, 18 percent of the IT experts did not feel the need to prioritize the importance of cybersecurity to their employees.
Increase in phishing attacks with the transition to WFH in pandemic
With a greater transition to WFH, there have been increasing attempts by hackers to get into the company using employee email addresses and SMS messages. This pandemic has made it easy to invade and grab the company’s sensitive and private data. Andy Ellis, the Chief Security Officer at Akamai Technologies says that although some enterprises claim to be ready to defend against cyber threats, in reality, they are far from being ready.
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Ellis said that to date phishing attacks have always existed but now with WFH, it has increased due to lack of appropriate IT infrastructure. Further, it is difficult to immediately consult one’s colleague if an email looks strange. To date, antiphishing strategies have been reactive instead of quickly adapting to identifying changing attacks, which makes it even more difficult to defend against phishing.
Cybersecurity threat increases as several companies allow employees to use personal devices
Companies are also allowing their employees to use their own mobile devices, which is adding to the cybersecurity woes. Also, contractors, partners, clients, and suppliers are allowed to use their own devices. Unauthorized access to data and systems coupled with malware infections are the chief security concerns faced by the majority of the firms today.
The coronavirus pandemic has affected the economy around the world, prompting layoffs with some of the IT and cybersecurity staff laid off in the process. Many companies do not have dedicated onsite IT staff, and most remote IT staff is overworked.
Appropriate IT security measures and training needed to defend against prevailing cyber threats
Cyber threats are confusing, technical, and obscured in secrecy. It is better to leave it to the IT experts to deal with them. Yet, it is important for every organization to implement cybersecurity training for their employees.
The IT team can advise them to take the necessary safety precautions like protecting passwords and files, and refusing to open suspicious emails from unknown senders. This will assist organizations in keeping their IT security in check and build a strong security foundation.