Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is slowing down, and the wall street is being struck. We are told to be quarantine or self-isolate and not engaging with the groups. People are no longer stepping out on the streets.
But there is one group that is not slowing down at all, and are probably working day and night while our lives have turned upside down. And that communities who work overtime to breach our business during this COVID-19 pandemic are hackers and cybercriminals.
For them, this is the best time to strike during a global crisis. In this stage, when you are distracted and spending time trying to make sense of this new normal, hackers are in search of new ways to get into your IT network to steal your data and passwords, might also compromise your clients’ private data and after that demand for large ransoms.
It is being expected that by 2021 cybercrime will cause damage of about $6 trillion! And if the history repeats itself, cyber criminals will be out in full force in this time of coronavirus scare.
We expect that in upcoming weeks that the headlines will be changed from stories of COVID-19 to accounts, and businesses are impacted by cyber-attacks, including corporations and small businesses.
How to stop them from doing so? Here are the steps you can implement to help protect your business crucial information, money, and productivity:
1. Be Suspicious Of Incoming E-Mails
Due to COVID-19 Pandemic, people are scared and confused at present, and that’s the perfect time for cybercriminals to run phishing campaigns related to coronavirus. These e-mails include dangerous malware and viruses that can impact your crucial business information.
As of now, there are full chances that your inbox is loaded up with COVID-19 subject lines and coronavirus centered e-mails. But we suggest you always examine the e-mail and ensure you know the sender. One of them in current time is an e-mail from CDC-gov spreading out there that is not genuine and is spamming inboxes across the county.
Try to avoid clicking on links in the e-mail, except if it's clear to you that where they direct you. Along with that, you should never download an attached file unless you realize who sent it and what it is. Impart these protections to everybody in your team; it’s important to share, especially when your team is working from home.
2. Ensure Your Work-From-Home Pcs Are Secure
Another reason we expect an ascent in cyber-attacks during this COVID-19 pandemic is the sensational increment in employees' work from home. In the long term, numerous businesses won't consider network security as priority work as their employees are working at the kitchen table. That is a perilous point of reference.
Firstly, you need to ensure that your resources are not utilizing their home PCs or gadgets while working. Secondly, also ensure that your work-at-home PCs have a firewall that is turned on. At last, your system and business information are not genuinely secure, except if your employees use a VPN (a virtual private network). During this pandemic, if you need assistance in arranging your new work-from-home environment, CyberTrust It Solutions would be glad to get your whole team set up successfully.
3. Improve Your Password Strategy
During emergencies like the one we all are confronting at this moment; your passwords could mean the difference between investing your energy. By relearning on how to develop your business and attempting to recover funds and private information that has been hacked. Make a point now to reexamine all your passwords and also direct your team to make more strong passwords.
Likewise, while it's so helpful to save your passwords in your browser, but with that, it additionally decreases your security. Since internet browsers have their secret phrase or PIN to get to saved passwords, but it’s a minute for a skilled hacker to sidestep this obstacle. When they get to your saved passwords, they can take as much as they need, like credit/debit card information, clients' private information, and that's just the beginning!
Instead, you can go for password managing applications and software to keep all of your passwords in a single spot. These password managers include strong security. A couple of choices are LastPass, Passportal, 1Password, and Keeper Security Password Manager.
You, your team, and your family need to take care by staying healthy, carrying on with an isolated lifestyle, and keeping your business robust. There's no compelling reason to welcome in more problems by letting your PC and system security slide during this pandemic.
In the time of this COVID-19 pandemic, if you need extra security counseling or might want to have a meeting to talk about how to protect your business information, simply contact us today.