Telework: 7 fat months for cybercriminals
1 out of 3 employees is of the opinion that their employer was not prepared for the coronavirus in terms of cybersecurity
Since the beginning of lockdown, the number of cyber attacks has increased. Unfortunately, teleworking often makes your company an easy victim for cybercriminals. Luckily, you can arm yourself with the right preventive measures.
Cybercriminals had 7 fat months. Everyone who could, had to work from home and this entailed many risks.
- Employees used their own laptops, operated through unsecure networks and had never even heard of VPN.
- In the meantime, cybercriminals conveniently took advantage of current events in the hope that fear and uncertainty were triggers to click on links. Almost everyone had to multitask - from Zoom or Teams Meetings to online classes - which definitely helped cybercriminals.
What can you do as an employer to create more awareness? Find out below.
We witnessed special offers on face masks & vaccines, fake fundraisers for victims of the virus, false compensation from the government and fake news.
Some examples:
Provide secure working systems
Many employees have a work laptop containing the right settings and software. Those who do not have a laptop at their disposal (43% of Belgians working at home) form a greater security risk to the company. Good agreements are essential. A second important factor is a secure network. You can send some tips to your employees or foresee a moment when - remotely - the IT responsible will test it. It is advisable that, as an employer, you install a VPN, which is a secure tunnel between the employee's private network and the professional network.
Train your employees
“40% of Belgian employees say that their employer does not offer support in terms of prevention in cybercrime when working from home” (source: Cyberbarometer 2020, AXA partners). Nonetheless, there are several agencies who assist companies in creating more awareness. Free videos, e-learnings, blog posts and newsletters are at your disposal.
- Awareness video: coronavirus (Dutch / French)
- Why do you receive spam? How can you avoid spam? (Dutch / French)
- Webinars about cybersecurity (Dutch / French)
- A webinar about recognizing phishing (Dutch / French)
These are some of the available tools that may help you with prevention.
Respond to current events: communicate and repeat procedures
"50% of Belgian employees do not know the rules of their employer concerning cybersecurity" (source: Cyberbarometer 2020, AXA partners). Do you pick up on something in the news that could also occur in your company? Discuss it in your newsletter or employee meeting. Briefly summarize the phenomenon and repeat procedures. This way you keep your employees on their toes.
Food Security helps her members:
Organizing a Members Meeting on 15/10 about Cybersecurity. During this 2 hour long digital session, experts will provide tips & tricks to improve your company’s protection. We will discuss prevention, case studies, the detection and prosecution of cybercrime and cyber insurance in this session.
Giving a Cybersecurity Training – also digital – to your employees. We interactively discuss various phenomena (passwords, social engineering, smishing/phishing/vishing, data breach, security of social media accounts etc.). We teach the right reflexes and link them to business procedures.
Developing an e-learning on ‘Safe Homeworking' in collaboration with the Cybersecurity Coalition. You will receive a link to pass through to your employees. They will then receive a deadline to follow the course. In only 10 minutes you create awareness among your employees and moreover, you receive a global report with the results. Interested? More info?
Offering our trainings as webinars from now on. More info?
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