Cybersecurity in Response to COVID-19

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of employees around the world are being forced to transition into remote work to achieve social distancing. As there is so much uncertainty regarding how long this will be in effect, it is important to ensure that companies and their employees are aware that cyber threats are increasing as the number of remote workers is as well. The Coronavirus is impacting your cybersecurity!

Employees are the first line of defense when it comes to cyber threats. They should be trained on the best practices to keep company data secure. This is always important, but with the heightened stress caused by the Coronavirus, people may have their guards down in hopes of learning more updated information on the virus. This can lead them to be more susceptible to click on a suspicious link.

Here are some things to watch out for:

Suspicious Links

It is essential to always be aware of phishing attacks, but there has been a significant increase since the Coronavirus outbreak. Hackers will attempt to trick you by using COVID-19 themed attacks. These suspicious links and attachments that come along with the attacks are malware links that have capabilities of locking your computer and wiping out your data.

Financial Scams

Another branch of these phishing attacks are that of banking scams that trick victims into entering their financial information. These scams are associated with checks that are coming from the IRS. Do not give away any information unless it comes directly from your bank and are sure that it is coming from a secure site.

Unsecure Networks

Securing your network is one of the most crucial steps in maintaining a cyber safe workspace. Unsecure networks allow potential nefarious insiders to access data and sabotage your remote work environment through malware attacks. Secure your Wi-Fi by changing the default password to a more complex password, limit the amount of people that know this password, and always use a trusted provider.

During this hectic time, hackers are looking for any way to take advantage of their victims. Now is an important time to closely monitor user behavior and heighten situational awareness. Corona Virus themed malware and phishing scams will only escalate as long as this pandemic is the center of attention.

Stay healthy and stay safe!