Are you vigilant with your Cyber Security while working from home?

As the Coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, governments, businesses, and individuals are trying to work out what it means for them and how to protect themselves and their systems.

By Cyber Security Team

Headline news and global disorder are tools malicious actors take advantage of to make their next breach.

Cyber Security is more important than ever, Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the chaos of current events associated with COVID-19. Sadly we’ve seen financially motivated malicious actors using coronavirus-themed phishing in many campaigns. In the past malicous actors have used anxiety surrounding Ebola, Zika, and SARS to make money.

Criminals looking to take advantage of the coronavirus have targeted both individuals and businesses with fake emails claiming to be from trusted organisations; Organisations like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organisation. The phishing emails promise everything from information on cures to medical equipment. In reality, they aim to deliver malware or steal passwords in a bid to cash in on this terrible situation.

Attackers are also disrupting internal businesses’ credibility in their attacks, researchers from the cyber firm Proofpoint wrote. “We have seen a campaign that uses a Coronavirus-themed email that is designed to look like an internal email from the company’s president to all employees… This email is extremely well-crafted and lists the business’ president’s correct name.”

Individuals have heightened interest in news and developments related to the virus, potentially making them more susceptible to social engineering tricking them into clicking on malicious links.

As the situation on COVID-19 evolves, our Cyber Security team are working hard behind the scenes to provide all the required services to keep our customers safe. Right now the threats are elevated due to the un-precedented amount of remote workers in Australia and around the world.We would give you some proffessional advice from our Cyber Security specialist that can protect both you and your business from cybersecurity threats.

 

How can you and your staff stay cyber safe while working remotely?

On Friday 13th March the ASD/ACSC sent out a statement: Cybersecurity is essential when preparing for COVID-19 . We wholeheartedly agree with everything in this statement.

Have a Plan

Every business needs to ensure they at least have a short term (30 day) plan, for the impact that the virus will have on their business. It could affect us longer than 30 days but this is a good start. Business’ must ensure that everyone knows what they are supposed to do; and ensure that all systems are checked before the requirement becoming necessary. Systems such as remote access, home systems, internet and anything else that could affect the functionality of your business.

Check these key things before you send everyone home to work:

  1. Do your systems have the capability to provide remote access to all of your staff if necessary? You need to know that this will work and not just hope that you can all dial into your 10-year-old SBS server and expect all staff to be able to function as though they were in the office. Can abilities be scaled up? Could you run up a temporary cloud solution to give you the abilities you need?

    Covid-19 Image

  2. If you are initiating a temporary cloud service to take the extra load, know your costs and ensure that security is not an afterthought. You need to ensure any services rolled out to cover the expanded needs is secure and capable to withstand the workload or potential attacks during these times ahead.
  3. ALL RDP/Remote connections should be through a VPN and Multifactor authentication is a MUST. Don’t cut corners get this right, you don’t want to be on the news because of a breach just because you didn’t secure your systems adequately before the landslide of expected remote users.
  4. It’s probably a little late if you haven’t started awareness measures yet with your staff to make a huge difference but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Run some remote security awareness training sessions, send out some flyers do what you can to help educate your team on how to stay safe with emails and online. Anything you can do to help keep your staff safe and security-aware will help you all get through this unscathed.
  5. Ensure that all systems that will be used to work from remotely have adequate protections, provide them corporate licences for AV (some vendors are providing licences to help with this burden for short term needs – ask your provider), make sure all systems are up to date and try to ensure that security procedures are continued as though they are internal corporate systems.
  6. Physical security – make sure that physical security is considered and all necessary measures are taken to ensure your staff and any equipment is as secure as they can be. Always lock systems when getting up from your desk, this will help to reduce likely hood of unauthorised access.
  7. Mental health – This is not one that we have seen people talk about much but we think that it is just as important as many of the above measures. During these hard times ahead we need to reach out to each other and make sure that everyone is cooping. Video call, chat, text whatever options you have open to you but let’s all be there for each other. It will make this self-isolation that we all must endure be more bearable.

Take your Cyber Security Seriously

We implore you to take this seriously and carry out your preparations. This will ensure a stronger Australia and help us all get through this COVID-19 pandemic as well as ensure those malicious actors don’t have many opportunities to take advantage of this situation (it’s a low act in itself but what do we expect).

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is a rapidly changing situation, we are committed to keeping you informed and to taking care of you. If you need any help getting all of this setup whether you are a current customer of Davichi or not give us a call on 07 3124 6059 or email support@davichi.com.auand one of our team will contact you to discuss.

Stay safe and well.

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