Thales is the latest organization to warn about the rising threat of cyberattacks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company observed that the transition to remote work has created security gaps that cybercriminals are now trying to exploit.
The concerns echo those of security specialists like Yubico and BioCatch, which have already noted that people have been forced to adopt new habits in response to the ongoing crisis. That disruption has made it more difficult to distinguish fraudsters from legitimate employees.
With that in mind, Thales has issued a set of eight security tips for employees who need to keep themselves keep safe while working from home. Some of those tips are relatively straightforward best practices, as in the case of using WPA2 encryption to protect the home environment. Thales also recommends the use of strong authentication services when sending sensitive information, and urges caution when clicking on links.
Some of the other tips have gained added importance in the present situation. For example, Thales argues that people should make sure the network discovery function is turned off to hide their work laptop from the rest of their home network. By the same token, the company suggests that people should disable webcams, microphones, and even their Wi-Fi when they are not in use. Doing so will prevent cyberattacks overnight, and ensure that sensitive information is not leaked through a microphone that has been left on.
Employees should also avoid using social media on a work device, and should be wary of anything sent from an unfamiliar source due to the increased rate of social engineering attacks.
The Thales primer comes shortly after the company confirmed that it had instructed its employees to work from home whenever possible during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company previously released a report that found that most organizations need to be more careful when going through a digital transformation.
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