Cybersecurity during COVID-19.

As more and more employees work from home, many businesses no longer have the safety net of on-site IT to help them manage their technical environments. With employees often using their own devices and networks at home, the risks of inconsistency with security and privacy are enhanced.

It is not surprising that according to the ACCC, more and more scammers are attempting to use COVID-19 as a method of attack in scam emails and text messages.

As a business, what can you do to make sure your staff, and your business, are protected from cyberattacks or privacy breaches while they are working remotely?

Policy is the best… policy.

Businesses should have a work from home policy and ensure their staff members complete a work from home checklist.

In addition, your business should ensure its data breach policy is updated and also have a remote cybersecurity policy capturing items such as:

1. antivirus and antimalware requirements;
2. software security update requirements;
3. password policies using multi-factor authentication;
4. network security; and
5. hardware policies.

Mitigating some potentially serious cyberattacks by achieving consistency in your employees’ security practices is essential.

Educating employees.

While having these policies in place will assist your business in securing valuable data, a remote setting means your employees now have almost complete autonomy in how they operate their devices. While the occasional Spotify install or a harmless Netflix Windows app might not affect security on a major scale – accidentally installing spyware might prove catastrophic for the business.

Alongside clear and consistent policies needs to be clear education for employees about the potential attacks they may come across. For example, teaching employees to identify phishing emails, spam campaigns, fake webpages, or Malicious email attachments may save your business’ information systems from harm.

The wonders of remote working.

Ultimately, remote working is what is allowing business continuity for a whole range of industries in this current climate. With third parties looking to leverage the uncertainty of this time, combined with the ‘inexperience’ of remote workers – it is prudent to fine tune your remote working security practices and make sure that your employees are empowered in protecting themselves and your business from harm.

Businesses of all sizes are facing new cyber threats and technology concerns in light of COVID-19. Bespoke is advising clients on privacy law compliance and their work from home policies, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. Please get in touch if you would like us to assist.

For details of all of our COVID-19 tips and updates, visit the Bespoke COVID-19 Hub.