7 Key Cybersecurity Areas You Can Not Ignore During This Pandemic

Cyber attackers are always looking for the right time to strike and this coronavirus pandemic has offered them a huge opportunity. From COVID-linked phishing attacks to denial of service attacks to ransomware attacks, we have seen it all since the pandemic started. With pandemic forcing businesses to ask their employees to work from home, the graph of remote workers has skyrocketed.

From a security perspective, that is not a good thing. First, remote workers use their own devices, which are not protected by enterprise security. Secondly, IT teams usually struggle to gain visibility into the device users are using for remote work, which makes remote workers more vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks.

So, how can businesses manage this situation? By focusing on key cybersecurity areas and sticking to basics. Richard Addiscott, Analyst Director at Gartner said, “During pandemics, organizations are focused on employee health and business continuity Take preemptive steps to ensure the resiliency and security of your organization’s operations as attackers seek to exploit human nature and nonstandard operating modes.”

In this article, you will learn about seven cybersecurity areas you should focus on during this pandemic.

Remote Access

With a major chunk of your workforce working remotely, they must access your organization’s resources remotely. Security teams were unable to perform connectivity performance checks and secure endpoints on personal devices employees are using when they work from home.

Even though corporate devices have endpoint protection built into it but if your employees are using personal devices, you do not even get that security. Security teams should be extra cautious when granting access to enterprise applications as they store tons of sensitive business data. Implement token-based multi-factor authentication to ensure that authorized persons have access to corporate applications.

Endpoint Security

The growing device heterogeneity coupled with evolving user demands and the increasing number and complexity of cybersecurity attacks has forced businesses to take endpoint security seriously. The growing number of devices connecting to your enterprise network is growing at a rapid pace which makes the job even more difficult for cybersecurity professionals. Businesses should create and implement an endpoint security strategy that works quickly before it is too late.

Social Engineering Attacks

As the security system gets better, cyber attackers are now targeting humans, which can easily be tricked as compared to cybersecurity systems. That is why they launch social engineering attacks such as phishing, tailgating, pretexting or spear phishing. Your organization should pay more attention to protecting your employees from social engineering attacks as they target your employees instead of your system.

The best way to protect your employees from social engineering attacks is to increase cybersecurity awareness amongst your employees. Organza training sessions and programs to increase employee awareness and test their knowledge by launching mock social engineering attacks. This will tell you which employees can protect themselves and which ones can fall victim to such attacks.

Security Monitoring

The sudden relocation of the workforce from office to home has also sent risk management teams to remote locations. This can have harmful consequences as cybersecurity teams are more likely to miss events when they are working remotely.

Cybersecurity should ensure that they have complete visibility even where they are working remotely. That is where your security monitoring and tools will be put to the test. More importantly, security teams should monitor their logs as well as tweak their monitoring based on the new operating environment. You can also automate the security monitoring and log management process which can take the hassle out of the entire process.

Incident Response

Did you know that the majority of businesses do not have an incident response plan? Those who do have one might have to create another one because their existing incident response plan will not be relevant in a current setup. Make sure that everyone in your team is assigned a role and he or she has access to all the necessary tools to respond to cyberattacks. If you don’t have the right tools, you should contact the supplier and vendors and get them quickly. Keep a close eye on problem areas and go through the documentation to unearth security issues that can be exploited.

Data Privacy and Security

Organizations collect, manage, and store a lot of data whether it is of employees, customers, or other stakeholders. Before GDPR regulations, organizations collect the data of customers without their permission and consent. After the advent of GDPR, businesses will have to seek permission from customers before collecting their data.

Even though the privacy of your data has improved as for facebook hack report, there is still a long way to go to ensure complete privacy and security of customer data. The key to success is to ensure that your sensitive data is stored in a safe place even if you have to buy a cheap dedicated server hosting for it. Take regular backup of your data so that you don’t have to worry about losing it.

Security Supply Chain

COVID-19 is a global issue so even if your vendors and suppliers are in a different part of the world, they might still get affected by it. As a business, you need to keep an eye on how it is impacting your suppliers, partners, vendors, and supply chain. Businesses who turn a blind eye to supply chain-related security issues are the ones that suffer the most. Get in touch with all the stakeholders and ask them how they are managing the security of your data.

With the growing number of cybersecurity supply chain attacks, it is important for businesses to hold their vendors and suppliers about the security and privacy of their data. No business would love to get into hot waters because of someone else's mistake. Knowing where third-party organizations fail to deliver on its promises might save you from disaster as you can switch vendors or suppliers before it is too late.

Which cybersecurity areas did you focus most on during this pandemic? Let us know in the comments section below.