Cyber threats are on the rise as more people work from home during pandemic

Cyber threats are growing amid the coronavirus pandemic, with online security experts warning that phishing scams are exploiting heightened fears among consumers and organizations. With the issue of personnel non-compliance, employee mistakes can occur when well-intentioned people get tricked by a phishing email, or misconfigure an application for cloud computing thinking they have turned on encryption or a proper level of data protection either by mistake or lack of familiarity. As things stand, people who normally work from home are probably already be vigilant about security concerns. However, those new to it may not have the best security practices. The vulnerability and risks grow with employees who don’t have a good work from home set up and need to rapidly deploy a set of tools to work remotely.

Under present WFH scenario many Insecure assets present in at-home environments amid execution of  COVID-19 BCP plans.

Many company devices were deployed into a WFH situation quickly, leaving little time to ensure that they would be secure via a VPN or other means.

The Assets left unsecured- An intentional decision to make devices less secure to allow for work from home (WFH) use. One example would involve removing admin permissions so that employees can complete the task without administrator oversight. Another would be allowing the use of “unpatched” business computers that allow hackers to load malicious files with admin privileges.

In some cases, companies with high-end virtual private networks (VPNs) pre-loaded on business computers are allowing people to work from home on personal devices either with no VPN or with a lower-end virtual private network that may be less hacker resistant.

The concern: The more corporate assets that you have, the higher risk of intrusion. Each asset becomes a doorway or entry point for a breach, particularly when it (or its user) are under prepared. IT Asset Managers help with this by providing the data necessary for corporate security teams to know what exists, where it exists, and what is on the device.

Security teams now must find ways to operate effectively in the new remote reality.

If managing a security operations center (SOC) under normal conditions isn't hard enough, adjusting operations during the COVID-19 crisis has been particularly hard on those who run information security operations centers. 

In addition to focusing on the health and safety of their team members, some of the best practices  involve re-deploying people where they're needed most, continuously upgrading skills, and fostering a security-supportive culture.