Many businesses and their employees across the globe have quickly shifted to remote work in response to the coronavirus outbreak. But unfortunately, this shift has placed immense pressure on most organizations’ cyber security risk management ability.

Another type of pressure that organizations will face is trying to ensure the best health and safety measures to mitigate the spread of infection amongst employees. That being said, if your organization is requesting any type of health-related or personal information from employees, you still need to remember to comply with all applicable privacy, confidentiality, and data security laws.

While some of these laws may have exceptions due to the emergency situation that the corona outbreak is, you will need to confirm what your obligations are in your region. It is highly recommended that you consult with your legal counsel to ensure that you are complying with all privacy-related obligations.

Keeping Cyber Secure

With so many employees suddenly working from home, businesses need to make sure that their remote working environments are secure. Phishing scams have already emerged attempting to target employees that have shifted to remote work. While it may be a scramble for some organizations dealing with strained IT and operation staff, there are a few suggestions for the best ways you can help reduce your remote workforces’ exposure to cyber risk.

Only Allow Network Access

Allow network access only through VPNs (virtual private networks) that are always patched immediately after updates are available. Only allow network access to devices with full disk encryption.

Passwords

Enable multi-factor authentication whenever possible and require strong passwords for all devices and applications.

Train Employees

Even if your employees have previously received cyber security training, now is the time for a refresher. Remind employees about social engineering risks and methods and to be alert for emerging coronavirus-related scams. Also, remind them to always keep their devices within their physical control and to always log off (even when at home) when not using the business network.

Be Alert

Make sure to be on heightened alert for cyber criminals which may be taking advantage of higher remote traffic to mask their infiltration attempts.

Cyber Insurance Protection

In case your organization does not have a cyber security insurance policy, you may want to consider getting coverage as it is certain that cyber attacks will rise as a result of coronavirus disruptions.

While it can vary depending on your location and insurance provider, you may be able to protect your business and be covered for items such as:

• Costs incurred as a result of wrongful disclosure or failure to protect confidential information.
• Costs incurred defending lawsuits alleging wrongful disclosure or failure to provide proper network or technology security.
• Business income loss resulting from ransomware attacks.
• Ransomware coverage such as ransom payments or data and system recovery costs.

Help Desk Support

 With remote work becoming the new normal, many businesses are faced with not having an accessible IT support team for employees. At MBC, our expert help desk is available to keep your business running smoothly online and our team of friendly experts is available 24/7 to offer professional support and resolve issues as quickly as possible. In fact, we have a 99.9% customer satisfaction rating!

To learn more about how MBC can support your business by providing expert help desk support and the latest methods to protect against cyber attacks, get a free assessment today.

Tammy Nyman

EVP & Managed IT Services Expert