The employees that were sent to work from home due to COVID-19 Coronoavirus, are probably still working from home. They may be using a corporate VPN to access some files over the server for safer purposes.
But the problem starts when employees use whatever they have in their homes. They may be using a family computer rather than a corporate computer, or they may be connected to a not-so-secure home network, or in fact, they may be using a free VPN rather than a paid VPN service.
These are the many questions that need answers for anyone who wants to keep their online identity secure and their online privacy protected.
Your home network router can be the weakest link. Anything that you download or anything that your wife or kids download if its a malware or a virus can easily reach your office computer. After that, it would also reach the office.
Whatever has access to the home network also has the access to the company. If the family members are using a VPN, then they might access websites that are regional-blocked and may carry additional security troubles reaching the office.
We Are Not Prepared for This
According to the CEO of Neocova, “We are are not prepared for 100% work from home when it comes to cybersecurity issues.”
Companies are completely relying on VPNs to keep their data private and secure which was previously not the case. The infrastructure that we have at home isn’t designed for security and that’s true for most companies.
Many companies including the team at KodiVPN.co had thought that work from home would only last a few months, but what we didn’t know was it would eventually become a new norm.
We are now a year or two away from the COVID-19 vaccine being developed which probably means by that time we all be working from home.
Even though most companies are finding it very cost-effective but they could see that cybercriminals are quick to take advantage.
How to Get Prepared
The only long-term solution that we could find is to educate your employees on cybersecurity issues.
If the processes are in place, people can self-manage. The infrastructure should be up-to-date with the latest security possible.
Hackers are constantly looking for an opening. Whenever they see an open internet with weak encryption, they would attack.
For example, if you think that your Wi-Fi router is older than your phone, then you should replace it immediately.
Once you start-off with education and awareness, the other thing you need to do is to place equipment and infrastructure with the consultation of your IT department.
You will have to answer some tough questions like, ‘How should an employee access company servers’, ‘How to send an encrypted email’, ‘How to store your passwords and encrypt your data’.
Every employee should equip themselves with a licensed VPN that has at least encryption of 256-bit which makes it impossible for even a skilled hacker to decrypt the information.
Lastly, keep your credentials safe at all times. Get a password manager and keep all of your passwords protected.
We all know it could take years for everyone to be normally back to work. For some companies, it may come as a blessing in disguise. They may reduce their cost in the meantime. But in the process, never compromise on cybersecurity as hackers are always finding new ways to harm your business and take away your revenue share.
There’s always some obstacles waiting for us in the corner, but since we are in this together, we will overcome this together.
