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Cybersecurity Focus: Making Remote Work Safer

Telework has been a popular trend in business for a while. However, it has seen unprecedented growth since the Coronavirus crisis.

Telework has been a popular trend in business for a while. However, it has seen unprecedented growth since the Coronavirus crisis. Many companies were forced to implement the remote working model. This process was not always easy.

One problem is that many employees are willing to sacrifice their security for organizations to continue operating as before the crisis. This fact cannot be ignored by cybercriminals.

Malicious actors have targeted loopholes in popular tools for teleworking such as conferencing software or Virtual Private Network solutions.

Malicious actors seek to spy on sensitive communications or infect enterprise networks with spyware and ransomware. They are also adapting the themes of phishing attacks for employees’ fears, pain points, and anxiety arising from Infodemics and frightening news like the ones coming from the frontlines of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

This is a list of cybercrime methods that focus on remote work models and practical strategies for companies to avoid these attacks.

VPN Security Must be Updated

Employees should be able to connect securely and safely while working from home. VPN is an essential tool to bridge the gap between workers, and hackers-proof online communication.

Teleworkers are increasingly dependent on these tools to do their jobs, so cybercriminals are constantly looking for vulnerabilities.

Numerous security reports indicate the increasing threat of VPN exploitation. It is important to strengthen the security of remote work models and to use VPNs carefully. These are the major risks involved in this area:

  • Hackers have intensified their efforts to exploit and discover weaknesses in VPN solutions, as it is a foundation for secure telework.
  • VPNs are used by businesses 24/7. It can be difficult for them to stay up-to-date with the latest security patches.
  • Spear phishing attacks may be more common than ever (Malwarefox spear phishing), which trick teleworkers into divulging their authentication details.
  • Phishing raids are more common in organizations that don’t require remote connections to be made using multi-factor authentication.
  • Administrators may choose to limit the number of simultaneous VPN connections to save money. Information security teams might not be able to complete their tasks if VPN services are unavailable because of network congestion.

The bottom line is that telework that relies upon VPN technology often leads to a single point of failure in a company’s security infrastructure. An attacker who hacks VPN connections can gain unnervingly wide access to the data assets of the target.

Here’s more food for thought. CISA alerted businesses about the Best Instagram Video Downloader‘s widespread exploitation of a dangerous flaw in Pulse Secure VPN. This vulnerability could allow remote code execution attacks to be launched against enterprise networks.

This vulnerability was made possible by the Sodinokibi ransomware, which is a virus that targets corporate networks.

This allowed malefactors to access network logs and disable MFA, which allows them to access user credentials stored in plaintext.

Security experts suggest that organizations increase their VPN security to avoid the worst-case scenario.

These are Some Tips to Keep Your Company from Becoming A Moving Target

  • Keep your VPN tools and network infrastructure up-to-date. This applies to personal and company-issued devices that employees use to access corporate resources remotely. The most current security configuration can be maintained by proper updates and patch management.
  • Inform your team about the likely rise in phishing attacks to help them be more cautious with suspicious emails.
  • You must ensure that the cyber security team can deal with remote access exploit scenarios by breach detection, log analysis, and incident response.
  • Multi-factor authentication is recommended for all VPN connections. This rule may not apply to your situation. Ensure that staff uses strong passwords for login.
  • Check the capacity limitations of corporate VPN services. Next, find a reliable hosting provider that can provide bandwidth limiting and secure connections continuity when it is most needed.
  • You can also test the VPN kill button. If the secure connection is lost or broken, this feature will automatically shut down all web traffic. You can be sure that your data won’t travel over the internet in an unencrypted format.

Conferencing Software Can be A Low-Hanging Tree

Virtual private networks have seen a significant increase in their popularity. Tools that allow virtual meetings also have risen in popularity. It’s not surprising that cybercriminals have increased their arsenal of tools for exploiting flaws in popular conferencing products.

This hack can have devastating consequences as it opens the door to eavesdropping on a large scale.

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology pointed out the risks arising from the misuse of virtual meeting tools. The agency stated that although many of these solutions have basic security features, they may not be sufficient to protect privacy.

This is a list of suggestions to stop hackers from getting away.

  • Respect your company’s guidelines and policies regarding the security of virtual meetings.
  • Do not reuse access codes for web meetings. You can expose confidential data to more people than you intended if you share access codes with many people.
  • Consider using unique meeting identifier codes or one-time PINs if you are planning to discuss highly confidential topics.
  • You can make the most of the “waiting area” function, which prevents virtual meetings from the beginning until the host joins.
  • Modify the settings to make the app notify you when someone joins the web meeting. This option must be enabled if it is not available.
  • You can use the Leverage dashboard controls during the conference to stay in touch with the attendees.
  • Do not record the virtual meeting. If you abed to record it for future reference please encrypt the file with a passphrase.
  • Employer-owned devices that are used for video conferencing should be banned or minimized.

Remember that hackers may not be Wyze Outdoor Camera Review the only ones interested in spying on virtual meetings. Employees who are disgruntled or fired may be tempted to access your company’s digital infrastructure.

The Bottom Line

Remote work has become a part of business evolution. It’s also an emergency response to new factors such as COVID-19. Unfortunately, the weakest link in security has been the “rough” implementations of telework within many organizations.

To avoid scams that are based on popular news topics, organizations should reconsider and strengthen their anti-phishing policies. Be suspicious of any messages that appear to be fraudulent and ask your staff to think twice before clicking on any link.

Remote work security has never been more important. If remote work security is not a top priority for your company, this must change.

 

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